LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



— , .- & 

UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. 




MAP OF SOUTH AMERICA. 



PHYSICS 



INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 



COMPREHENDING A DISCUSSION OF CERTAIN PHYSICAL PHE- 
NOMENA IN CONNECTION WITH THE ACUTE 
INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 



C. A. LOGAN, AM., M.D. 




CHICAGO: 
JANSEN, McCLURG AND COMPANY. 

1878. 













\ 



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K 



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Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1878, 

By C. A. LOGAN, A.M., M.D., 
in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



(All rights reserved.) 



j KMISHT S; LEONARD \ 



TO 



SR DON ADOLFO YBANEZ, 

LATE MINISTER OF FOREIGN RELATIONS OF THE 
REPUBLIC OF CHILE. 



Sir : This little book has grown out of a residence in a country 
full of interest to the scientist, philosopher, and historian; and 
among a people progressive, enlightened, and hospitable to a 
proverbial extent. For the material it contains, the writer is largely 
indebted to your individual and official aid, whereby he was enabled 
to avail himself of access, not alone to the scientific, but likewise 
to the medical institutions of the Republic. 

Filled with pleasant recollections of the country and its people; 
with gratitude for the handsome treatment he received at their 
hands; and animated by a personal friendship for yourself, only to 
be terminated when the earthquakes finally disappear from your 
beautiful Chile (hasta mi muertcj, Senor), this volume is fittingly 
offered to you in dedication, by The Author. 



PREFATORY NOTE. 



Several years since, while the author, as a member 
of the Kansas State Geological Survey, in charge of the 
departments of Botany and Sanitary Kelations, was col- 
lecting material for a report upon those subjects, to be 
incorporated in the general report of the Survey, his 
attention was directed to a circumstance which appeared 
to him of singular character, viz : the greater or less 
prevalence of certain of the acute infectious diseases, in 
pretty constant association with certain general physical 
conditions. The association was not of a character so 
pronounced, however, as to enable the reporter to trace 
with any special definiteness, the direct lines of cause and 
effect. 

At a subsequent date, being called to reside in South 
America, in occupancy of a position (that of U. S. Minister 
to the Eepublic of Chile), which not only gave him ample 
leisure, but afforded him unusual facilities for study and 
1 observation, he became confirmed in some of the convic- 
tions which had previously impressed themselves upon 
him; while many new lines of thought developed them- 
selves as natural suggestions, flowing from the very re- 
markable, and very interesting physical circumstances of 



4 PEEFATORY ^"OTE. 

that portion of the world falling under description in 
the following pages. One of the author's purposes in the 
preparation of this small, and, as he fears, incomplete 
volume, has been to develop the chain of reasoning upon 
the specific causation of the important class of diseases 
before mentioned, which has grown out of his own esti- 
mate of all the factors, involved in a solution of the 
intricate questions underlying the aetiology of these mal- 
adies. 

Apart from this purpose, however, he has had two other 
objects in view, of far greater value to the profession than 
the statement of his own opinions. These are: firstly, to 
furnish medical information concerning a region, which in 
a medical sense, is emphatically a terra incognita, by reason 
of the almost entire lack of accessible literature pertaining 
to its medical aspects; and secondly, to stimulate the gen- 
eral body of the medical profession to a more extended 
study of the physical laws and operations of nature, with- 
out a knowledge of which, we can never hope to impart to 
the simple art of medicine, any of the features of an exact 
and recognized science. 

Some three hundred years ago, Dr. Kadcliffe, an eccen- 
tric London physician, declared that he could write the 
whole art of medicine upon a single sheet of paper; and 
in our own day there seems to exist a tendency, upon the 
part of many mere practitioners, to cultivate too exclusively, 
a facility for ready and varied prescription writing. Not- 
withstanding the impediment to genuine medical progress 



PREFATORY NOTE. 5 

offered by him, who sees but a question of dosage in all 
cases of sickness, there is a constant and unmistakable 
advance of the general profession, in the direction of lifting 
it from the furrows of a narrow routine, and of placing it 
upon an eminence, from which it may command an unob- 
structed view of its entire surroundings. The author, 
therefore, has no apology to make for the discussion of 
subjects, which, upon a superficial view, would seem to 
have no immediate relationship with the direct topics of 
medical inquiry. 

His purpose, however, has been to give to his remarks 
upon the various subjects treated, more of a suggestive 
character, than of didactic positiveness. If there shall 
be some to open the book with a running glance at its 
pages, in expectation of finding the long-sought secret of 
specific medication, and failing in this, to lay it aside with 
the exclamation, Nil novi sab sole, the author trusts there 
will be not a few to carefully follow its line of reasoning to 
the close ; and to these, he ventures to believe, there will 
be presented much material worthy of the most careful 
thought. 

It is only within a comparatively recent period that the 
present views, concerning what the author has been com- 
pelled to call, by way of distinction, the general or original 
force or energy of nature, have been developed ; and so far 
as relates to the mysterious agency, so long designated as 
the vital force, and more recently, as the nervous force, the 
ground may be said to be almost unbroken. And yet it 



6 v PREFATORY NOTE. 

must be apparent to every reflecting mind, that the very 
richest developments of medicine are to be obtained in 
following a lead, which must inevitably carry the investi- 
gator to the very centre of his subject; for within that 
inscrutable something, which the author calls vital gravi- 
tation, and the vital energy in its most restricted sense, is 
to be found enthroned the secret of the Life principle, the 
mystery of Generation, and the wonders of Distinct Species, 
Through the woof and warp of his argument, the author 
lays no claim to absolute perfection in the thread of detail. 
The touchstone of Time may level his theories to the dust, 
and show them to be as insubstantial as " the baseless 
fabric of a vision "; the works of abler writers may consign 
this little book to oblivion; and yet there are principles 
herein set forth which neither time nor authors can dis- 
turb ; as there are also facts underlying the structure the 
author has attempted to build, which must remain immu- 
tably fixed through all the coming cycles of the future, and 
cease to be facts only, when the wreck of matter and the 
crash of worlds shall announce the end of present laws, 
and the termination of all existences resting upon them. 

C. A. L. 
No. 99 Ashland Avenue, Chicago, 
May 1, 1878. 



CONTENTS, 



PART I. 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 



General Observations; The Atmosphere as a Medium of Disease- 
Transmission; Classification of the Diseases to be Considered; 
The Geography of Disease, 13 



PART II. 

PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF THE PACIFIC COAST OF SOUTH AMERICA. 

CHAPTER I. 
General Characteristics, 21 

CHAPTER II. 
Earthquakes From a Medical Standpoint, - - - - -24 

CHAPTER III. 
The Andes; Influence Upon Climate, 26 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Trade Winds; Why the Subject of Winds is Important; 
Where the Rains Come From, 28 

CHAPTER Y. 
The Earthquake Under Medical Scrutiny. 36 

CHAPTER VI. 
Concerning Ozone; Tests for Ozone; General Properties of Ozone; 
Its Effect Upon Man and Animals; Its Effect Upon Insects 
and Aerial Organisms; Conclusion as to Ozone; Antozone, - 40 



8 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VII. 
Further Consideration of the Earthquake; Earthquakes and 

Thunder-storms, 50 

CHAPTER VIII. 
A Review of the Position ; Interpretation of the Facts, - - 55 

CHAPTER IX. 
The Forces of Nature; Definition of Force and Energy; Divisions 
of Energy; Transmutation of Energy; the Physicist's Ether; 
The Conservation of Energy; Different States of Matter; 
Concerning Oxygen; Nature of the Ether; the Source of 
Energy, 60 

CHAPTER X. 
Oxygen and Electricity, 75 

CHAPTER XL 
The Volcanic Pile, 78 



PART III. 

MEDICAL ASPECTS OF THE PACIFIC COAST OF SOUTH AMERICA. 

CHAPTER I. 

General Considerations ; Remarkable Exemption From the Infec- 
tious Diseases, --81 

CHAPTER II. 
Sanitary View of Principal Cities; Ecuador, Guayaquil and Quito; 
Peru, Payta, Callao and Lima; Bolivia; Chile; Valparaiso 
and Santiago, 86 

CHAPTER III. 
Prevalent Diseases of Chile; Prevalent Infectious Diseases; In- 
fectious Diseases Claimed to have Prevailed; Non-prevalent 
Infectious Diseases; Animal Poisons, - - - - -96 

CHAPTER IV. 
A Glance at the North Pacific Coast; Resume, - 104 



CONTENTS. 9 

PART IV. 

THE PHYSICS OF SPECIFIC CAUSATION. 

CHAPTER I. 

Ideal Function of the Nervous System; The Yital Force; Vital 
Gravitation; The Three Laws Concerning the Beginning 1 , 
Duration and Termination of Life; Distribution of the Nerv- 
ous Energy; The Localization of Energy, - 107 

CHAPTER II. 

The Source of Animal Heat; Energic Transmutation; Influence of 
Oxygen; The Vital Energy, - 116 

CHAPTER III. 
The Theories of Specific Causation; The Order of Life in Nature; 
Geography of Plants; Geography of Man and Animals; The 
Fauna of Past Ages; The Flora of the Past; Special Forms 
Under Special Conditions, 120 

CHAPTER IV. 
Hypothesis of the Living Germ; Objections to the Theory; The 
Question of Fermentation; Pasteur's Experiments; Electricity 
and Fermentation; Prevalence of Atmospheric Germs; Pas- 
cal; Tyndall; Conclusions as to the Bacterial Hypothesis, - 124 

CHAPTER V. 
Hypothesis of the Contagious Bioplast, 134 

CHAPTER VI. 
Hypothesis of the Infectious Molecule; Origin of the Infectious 
Diseases; An Original Habitat; Mode of Propagation of the 
Infectious Diseases; Vital Polarity; The Organic Molecule; 
The Vital Chemistry; Molecular Nature of Disease; Energic 
Nerve- Circles; Energic Nerve- Groupings; Grouping of Mor- 
bid Actions; Poison-Centres; How Transportation is Accom- 
plished; The Inorganic Molecule; The Infectious Molecule; 
The Pus Molecule; Atomic Arrangement and Isomerism; 
All Diseases are Infectious; Dissecting Wounds ; Transfer of 



10 CONTENTS. 

Non-specific Infection; Action of the Infectious Molecule; 
Specific Energy of the Infectious Molecule, - 136 

CHAPTER VII. 
Generalizations From the Facts, 155 



PART Y. 

THERAPEUTICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

CHAPTER I. 

General Measures; Organic Germs; Oxygen in Health; Nature's 
Disinfectants; The Stamping-out Process; Improved Health 
Rates, 158 

CHAPTER II. 

Special Measures; Energy Determines Forms of Life; Impress of 
the Contagium; Nervous Character of the Symptoms; Elini- 
inative Remedies; Fallacy of; The Antiseptics; Failure of; 
The Disinfectants; Efficacy of, in a General Sense; Ozone as 
a Disinfectant; Mixture for the Generation of; The Support- 
ing Remedies and Measures; Nervous Calmatives and Bella- 
donna; The Iron Sheet- Anchor; A Potent Agent; Oxygen as 
a Remedy; Iron and Chlorate of Potassium as a Means of 
Supplying Oxj^gen; The Ozoniferous Ethers; The Terpines; 
Ozonized Charcoal; Oxygenized Water; Oxygen by Inhala- 
tion; In Scarlatina and Small-Pox; Diphtheria; Membra- 
nous Croup; Tetanus; Puerperal Convulsions; Septicaemia; 
The Principle Involved, 136 



PART VI. 

THE QUESTION OF ENERGY AS RELATED TO GENERAL DISORDERS. 

CHAPTER I. 
Brief Review of the Subject; Extension of the Subject, - - 187 



CONTENTS. 11 



CHAPTER II. 



Essential Construction of the Animal System; Prevalence of Nerv- 
ous Diseases; The Need of a Philosophy; Influence of the 
Nervous Centres in Disease, 189 

CHAPTER III. 

Functional and Structural Divisions of Disease; The Nervous 
Bankrupts, - - - ' 194 

CHAPTER IY. 

Molecular Physiology of the Nervous Centres; The Condition of 
Insanity; Dr. Thudichum's Analyses, 197 

CHAPTER Y. 

Functional Consequences of Excessive Mental Activity; Conse- 
quences to the Female System, 202 

CHAPTER YL 

Therapeutics of the Nervous Diseases; Structural Upbuilding; 
Phosphorus and Oil; Dr. Weir Mitchell's System; Oxygen 
andiron; A Demand for Specifics, - - - - - 205 

CHAPTER VII. 
Conclusion, 210 

Addendum, Concerning the Source of Energy, - 211 



PHYSICS 



INFECTIOUS DISEASES 



PART I. 

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 
General Observations. 

A class of diseases, variously denominated in later times, 
zymotic, infectious, contagious, miasmatic, miasmatic-con- 
tagious, etc. etc., ravaged the earliest ages of which we have 
any authentic record ; and have transmitted themselves, 
probably under the identical features and aspects which 
originally characterized them, through all the eventful cen- 
turies of the past, and now stand before our own generation 
as a monument of human mortality, which has escaped the 
changes of time upon the one hand, and, in great part, the 
assaults of advancing science upon the other. 

That such an important group of diseases should have 
stimulated special investigation and study is not to be won- 
dered at ; and that the hope of the physician has not 
budded into the full flower of an accomplished fact, though 
a thing to be regretted, is no cause for a relinquishment of 
effort. The author of a recent and valuable work upon 
General Pathology declares that setiology, or a knowledge 
of the causes of disease, is one of the weakest chapters of 
his subject. The necessity for such a declaration seems no 
2 



14 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

less imperative than to be regretted ; and no less true in 
general terms than unfortunate in practical consequences. 
This branch of the healing art may safely be said to under- 
lie its whole structure, as within its limits are included 
the prevention of prospective disease, as also the cure of 
established morbid action. It thus comprehends the prime 
subjects of hygiene and therapeutics, which subjects mark 
the extreme boundary line of the mere physician's useful- 
ness. 

The vital importance of the knowledge of disease-causa- 
tion, therefore, has always been recognized by the medical 
practitioner, as well as by the medical philosopher; and 
the endeavor to lift the veil so darkly covering the com- 
plex processes of nature's laboratories, to the end that 
intelligent effort might supersede empirical experiment 
in the prevention and treatment of our physical mala- 
dies, has been a constant characteristic of enlightened 
medical research. If the effort have not already been 
crowned with the full success of the most sanguine desire, 
a survey of the field from the standpoints of our own 
day, and that of even fifty years ago, will show a progress 
entirely justifying the statement, that the first empirical 
elements of the medical art have been already transformed 
into the higher features of an extended science, with many 
established facts entailing precise and demonstrative re- 
sults. 

Some of the immediate and remote causes of morbid ac- 
tion are now as plainly mapped out as rocks and shoals on 
the navigator's chart; and though the innate characters 
of specific agencies are quite unknown to us, and the devel- 
opments of our age have been in that inverse order which 
enables us to see the effect before recognizing the cause, yet 
our knowledge of the preventive influences of general and 



GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 15 

private sanitary measures, the protective power of vaccina- 
tion and of other positive resources, is much to boast of. 
As confessed by Wagner, however, in the work before al- 
luded to, the doctrines of specific-disease causation — to 
the consideration of which this small volume is to be de- 
voted — are still in the rudiments. The subject is so vast 
in proportions, so intricate in varied relations, and so 
largely confined to the operations of forces and matter ut- 
terly beyond the reach and view of the unaided senses, and 
therefore only to be approached through the assistance of 
mechanical and other expedients, that the full consumma- 
tion of hope, if ever to be realized, is possible only through 
the accumulative developments of time and patient re- 
search. 

The Atmosphere as a Medium of Disease- Transmission. 

In the search for causative agencies, the atmosphere 
which envelops our planet has been studied with as much 
care as the present state of our general knowledge per- 
mits; and this not alone with reference to its own inhe- 
rent constitution, and the manner in which it is affected 
by the solar heat and the associated questions of aqueous 
and electrical states, but also as a medium for the trans- 
mission of the contagia of the infectious class of diseases, 
which latter undoubtedly proceed from an agency specific 
and distinctive in character, and with full ability to pre- 
serve its own individual type of constitution. 

It is in the direction of solving the problem last men- 
tioned that the medical energy of our period is largely ex- 
pending itself; these being affections which, as before 
stated, still play a dreaded role in the mortality of the hu- 
man race ; while in the past history of the world they have 
carried desolation to states and defeat to armies ; have sub- 



16 PHYSICS OF THE IXFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

verted governments; changed the lines of commerce, and 
leveled and established empires. Though the attempt to 
bring into full view and general acknowledgment, the mys- 
terious hosts which carry more terror before them than 
whole regiments of armed men has not been at all success- 
ful, yet it must be admitted that many of the diseases under 
consideration have been greatly shorn of their evil power ; 
w T hile a careful estimate of the already-accumulated and 
constantly-increasing mass of observations relating to the 
circumstances and conditions which enable these legions of 
destruction to spring into the line of attack, gives some 
promise of an ability, perhaps, in a not distant future, to 
erect such barriers as may largely and even effectually stop 
their ravages, though the producing agents themselves for- 
ever remain invisible. 

Classification of the Diseases to be Considered. 

It is the author's present purpose to discuss the causes 
of the acute infectious diseases, in their varied relation- 
ships and collateral bearings; and as growing out of the 
line of reasoning which will be developed, to make some 
observations relating to the general therapeutics of such 
diseases, intended, however, as elsew T here stated, to have 
more of a suggestive than other character. 

In treating of any subject, medical or non -medical, 
it seems of the first importance that the terms used in 
description and discussion should bear a precise and 
unequivocal signification ; otherwise confusion continu- 
ally arises. The classification and, to a certain extent, 
the nomenclature of general diseases, originally founded 
upon the most arbitrary and unscientific bases, have been 
shifting, periodically, to meet the new ideas and develop- 
ments concerning the essential nature of morbid action. 



GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 17 

This observation is quite true of the specific affections, 
there being even now a particularly indefinite use of the 
terms infectious and contagious ; the greater number of 
pathologists, probably, using the two terms synonymously. 

But, within the short space of a decade, a change of 
classification has been made in this group of diseases, as 
will be perceived by the following extract from an author, 
then as now, of the highest rank. Aitken (Practice 
of Med., 2d Am. Ed. 1866) comprehends, under the head 
of zymotic diseases : "All the principal diseases which 
have prevailed as epidemics or endemics — all those which 
are due to paludal or animal malaria ; and those due to 
specific disease poisons, capable of propagation from one 
human being to another, and communicable either by direct 
contact or indirectly through various channels of human 
intercourse, contaminating drinking water or infecting the 
air, or by animals in a state of disease. The class also com- 
prehends the diseases that result from the scarcity and the 
deterioration of the necessary hinds of food, from the gen- 
eration, propagation or existence of parasitic animals." 

The following statement, however, probably embodies 
the most general present usage as to classification of the 
diseases to be considered. 

Infectious or contagious diseases are those believed to 
originate from a peculiar causative agent, which latter, un- 
der the proper conditions, is capable of reproduction to an 
endless and unlimited extent. These conditions may require 
the causative agent, before being capable of producing the 
typical disease-form in another person, to have its origin 
either within or without the human body. In the former 
case, the specific excitant of disease as between two persons, 
is called the contagium ; while in the latter it is usual to 
designate it as a miasm. The contagium is capable of con- 



18 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

veyance from a diseased individual to a sound or healthy- 
one, and of setting up the type-disease in the latter. Miasm, 
as being connected with causes entirely outside of the ani- 
mal organism, makes its impression upon an individual 
exposed to its influence, and establishes a specific disease 
within him ; but renders him entirely incapable of trans- 
mitting it to another. The first class may be represented 
by small-pox ; and the second, by the periodical or malari- 
ous fevers. 

There exists still a third class of infectious diseases, 
which belong to neither of the preceding as above defined. 
These diseases are not conveyed directly from person to 
person by specific contagium, nor yet have they such an 
autochthonous origin as render them susceptible of spo- 
radic development. They are represented chiefly by such 
affections as cholera, and typhoid and yellow fevers. They 
are Supposed to depend upon a poison, which, having pro- 
duced the typical affection in one person, must undergo a 
change outside of the human body before it can produce 
the like disease in another person. The nature of this 
change, whether progressive or retrograde, as regards the 
new development of the poison, is not stated, of course ; 
the character of the original poison itself being unknown. 
. Upon such a supposition, however, it is sought to explain 
the alleged fact, that the dejections of a cholera subject are 
incapable of transmitting that disease while fresh and re- 
cent, but acquire that power after the lapse of a certain 
period of time. 

There seems to be an imprecision, however, in the fore- 
going classification, as regards the terms infectious and 
contagious, which neither accords with general usage nor 
represents the established facts concerning the distinctive 
features and characteristics of these remarkable affections. 



GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 19 

The word infectious (inficio, to stain,) is used in literature 
to express the idea of general contamination, as : 

U A11 seems infected that th' infected spy, 
As all looks yellow to the jaundiced eye." — Pope. 

••Infected be the air on which they ride."— Shak. 

It would seem not inappropriate to apply the term in- 
fectious to the whole class of diseases believed to be caused 
by the operation of a specific, aerial entity upon the system; 
and to restrict the term contagious (contingo, to touch one 
another,) to those diseases which are known to be trans- 
missible, only, from one to another, by personal communi- 
cation. Under so general a classification, the term miasm 
could be dispensed with entirely; while the word contagium 
might still represent a specific poison, and with a restrictive 
adjective, specify that of any individual disease. Our pres- 
ent use of the words miasm, malaria, etc., is arbitrary and 
indefinite in the extreme. Being terms of general significa- 
tion to convey the idea of "bad air," they are also used to 
specify an individual type of fevers — those marked by peri- 
odicity. Surely the vocabulary of science is not so limited 
but that it might furnish a distinct name for so important 
a class of diseases, founded upon their special characteris- 
tics. 

Under the two general divisions above mentioned, a par- 
ticular disease might be, at once, infectious and contagious, 
as, for instance, scarlatina, variola, etc.; or it might be in- 
fectious and not contagious, as the malarious fevers, typhoid 
fever, etc.; or it might be contagious and not infectious, as 
syphilis, and all the diseases caused by the direct applica- 
tion of a special virus. 

Such a classification, while expressive of all that we really 
know concerning causation, would place the expressions 



20 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

more in accord with general usage, simplify the subject, and 
establish a deflniteness of terms not now existing. Upon 
this basis, the author uses the words infectious and conta- 
gious, in this volume. 

The "terms acute and chronic infectious diseases, have 
herein, the meaning usual to them; as also those of endemic, 
epidemic and pandemic ; which, relating rather to locality 
and extent, than to causation, need no other interpretation 
than those commonly given them. 

The Geography of Disease, 

That frightful disease, the cholera, has been subjected to 
the closest study in all of its aspects; one result of which, 
has been the development of a fact, more particularly to be 
dwelt upon hereafter, in relation to the whole class falling 
under scrutiny in these pages, viz: that this affection has a 
locality to which alone it is native. As must appear evi- 
dent, this is an important factor in the problem of its pre- 
cise causation. But with this exception, it may be said that 
sufficient attention has not been paid to the geography of 
the infectious diseases — the mapping out of localities of 
original and acquired occupation, and the regions of greater 
or less growth and prevalence, as well as the determining of 
climatic, physical and social conditions in particular con- 
nection with each. It is more especially this branch of the 
subject, to which the author proposes a contribution; one 
which may have some, or no value; but which is offered in 
the hope that it may prove an addition to the accumulation 
of facts, which must ultimately assist in working out these 
problems, if a definite solution is ever to be reached. 



PART II. 

PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF THE PACIFIC COAST OF SOUTH 

AMERICA. 



CHAPTER I. 

General Characteristics. 

It may be said that the region above mentioned is, in 
many respects, one of the most interesting parts of the 
world, whether considered in its physical features or its 
curious medical relations, the latter having a large depend- 
ence upon the former. The writer has recently returned 
from a nearly four years' residence in the republic of Chile, 
and thereby enjoyed many opportunities for studying the 
whole coast from Panama to the Straits of Magellan. Occu- 
pying an official position, also, his facilities for access to the 
men and institutions of the governments upon that coast 
were somewhat exceptional ; and the collection of a large 
amount of valuable information, which he hopes to make 
fully accessible to those interested, has resulted therefrom. 

In the consideration of the questions naturally involved 
in the lines of investigation herein pursued, the writer will 
be compelled to treat somewhat lengthily of the physical 
features of the South Pacific coast, and in a manner which 
to some may appear outside the strict limits of medical 
inquiry ; but he expects to show, before concluding his 
remarks, that these features have an essential and insepa- 
rable connection, and go hand in hand with the medical 



22 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

aspects of the region under study. Expecting hereafter to 
make a much more elaborate exposition of the remarkable 
phenomena herein imperfectly described, he will be as brief 
as is consistent with a proper understanding of the facts he 
wishes to disclose ; although the thoughtful reader will, at 
once, realize the difficulty of compacting in a narrow com- 
pass, observations relating to a subject so large in propor- 
tions, and so extensive in the chain of circumstances which 
unites them together, and renders them of interest to the 
medical inquirer. 

A voyage to the Pacific coast of South America is fraught 
with surprises to the medical man, as well as to the histo- 
rian, the scientist and the general student. The civiliza- 
tions there encountered are entirely different from our own, 
but they ha\e many merits as well as demerits and pecu- 
liarities. It is here that a view is presented of the rapidly 
retreating customs, manners and life of nearly four hundred 
years ago — a view possessed of absorbing general interest. 
It is only so far, however, as the habits and modes of living 
affect health conditions, that the people can be studied 
from a purely medical standpoint. A coast line of nearly 
four thousand English miles, extending from the Isthmus 
of Panama to the Straits of Magellan, including a range of 
latitude from the equator to 54 degrees south, would natu- 
rally imply a great diversity of climates, as affecting the 
people inhabiting this lengthened stretch of country. To 
the results naturally flowing from extreme range of lati- 
tude, there is added an element of potent and complex 
energy, in the existence of a chain of mountains, extend- 
ing, with its lateral outliers, from Patagonia upon the south, 
to the upper part of Columbia, upon the north, the higher 
peaks of the main chain rearing their lofty heads far into 
the regions of eternal ice and snow. 



GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS. 23 

The contrasts produced through this influence may be 
realized, by considering that the city of Guayaquil, in Ecu- 
ador, situated upon tidewater, not far below the equator, 
burns under the vertical sun of the tropics, and is only 
relieved by the cool nights of summer, when the Chdnduy, 
a wind blowing over a contiguous mountain of that name, 
prevails ; while in Quito, the capital of the same country, 
situated nearly upon the equator, but elevated only a little 
less than ten thousand feet above the sea, and lying at the 
base of Mt. Pichincha, whose altitude is nearly sixteen thou- 
sand feet, enjoys a delightfully temperate climate, often 
interspersed with snaps reminding one that he is but a few 
miles from where he may get a taste of genuine winter. 

It is not alone with respect of thermal conditions, nor 
yet of those of atmospheric humidity, that this great work 
of nature is possessed of such strange influences upon the 
destinies of the people living under its shadow. Its other 
agency, which may be likened to that of an enormous bat- 
tery, sending out and receiving flames of electricity, and 
playing currents of mysterious telegraphy between sea, and 
earth, and air, renders it of intense interest to the medical 
philosopher. There is a single word, which if uttered 
among the people of the greater part of the immense belt 
of territory under consideration, is one always of apprehen- 
sion, and generally of wild fear and consternation — it is the 
word terremoto in the vernacular, and earthquake in plain 
English. 



CHAPTER II. 

Earthquakes Fkom a Medical Standpoint. 

In pursuance of our present objects, the medical man 
may pertinently ask, What causes an earthquake? The 
question has never been satisfactorily settled by physicists. 
The generally accepted theory of earth vibration, as a sim- 
ple consequence of a volcanic eruption, or the impact of 
gases arising from an internal molten condition, creating 
trembling at a distant point, or a wave in the internal 
molten fluid, seems wholly untenable in view of the obser- 
vations of the author upon these remarkable phenomena. 

A very brief residence in the earthquake regions was 
sufficient to convince the writer of these pages of the direct 
connection between the manifestations of an earthquake 
and the sanitary condition immediately following it, such a 
belief being very general among the natives. The follow- 
ing extract from a communication by a prominent member 
of the Chilean Protomedicato to a statistical volume re- 
cently published,* will convey an idea of the expert opinion 
upon the subject: " Les tremblements de terre influent 
considerablement sur Tetat sanitaire du pays; chaque 
secousse violente est suivie d'un grand nombre de maladies 
nerveuses, de fluxions de poitrine, de grippes, etc., et je 
connais un cas de folie survenu a Valparaiso a la suite des 
violentes secousses du 7 Juillet 1873." 

With full belief in a relationship of far greater extent 
than generally supposed, the writer began a series of obser- 

* ll Le Chili, Tel Qu'il Est," par Edouard Seve. 



EARTHQUAKES FROM A MEDICAL STANDPOINT. 25 

vations upon the subject of earthquakes, and has a record 
of every important occurrence of the kind, with its attend- 
ant phenomena, for three successive years, embracing, in 
all, nearly three hundred shocks, of greater or less violence. 
Suspecting their causation to be in immediate connection 
with manifestations of the electric energy, he collected 
what seems to him abundant and overwhelming proof of 
the verity of this suspicion. Of the much interesting in- 
formation obtained by his personal observation, that only 
need be given in this volume, which has an immediate or 
remote bearing upon the topic of the infectious diseases, 
aetiologically considered. And as a prelude to subsequent 
observations, some details of the conformation of the South 
American continent as influencing the questions of climate 
and health, must be briefly stated. 



CHAPTER III. 

The Andes. 

This royal chain of mountains, containing within its 
length no less than fifty-one volcanic peaks, some of which 
are still in periodic activity, rises gradually in the southern 
part of Patagonia, and pursues a course nearly due north 
as far as about the 18th degree of south latitude, when it 
turns to the northwest in harmony with the configuration 
of that part of the continent; thus forming an obtuse 
angle with itself. Continuing its course to the northwest 
about as far as the 5th degree of south latitude, it reaches 
a point corresponding to the most western extremity of the 
continent, where it follows a course nearly due north 
through Ecuador, until the equator is reached. It then 
bends to the northeast through Columbia, in which latter 
state it gradually dips down, and is lost before reaching the 
river Atrato, near the 8th degree of north latitude. 

The foregoing description outlines the general course of 
the Andes, and a reference to the map will show how 
curiously the chain is reared as a barrier facing the waters 
upon the east and north. This circumstance will be again 
referred to. 

In Central America the chain again begins to rise, con- 
tinuing through Mexico and the western part of our own 
country, until it once more shelves down to the river 
Mackenzie on the north. The South American Andes 
embrace a length of about four thousand English miles. 

The line of perpetual snow throughout this great length 



THE ANDES. 27 

varies, of course, with the latitude and certain local condi- 
tions which influence it; but the main chain rises above 
the line pretty nearly from its origin, and so remains 
throughout a large part of its course. In the State of Co- 
lumbia, however, there exists but one point above it. 
While these observations apply to the general line of the 
Andes, there are many, many peaks ranging in altitude 
from 12,000 to nearly 24,000 feet above the sea; awe-inspir- 
ing in appearance, and constituting the veritable and unap- 
proachable thrones of the eternal Ice-King. 

Influence upon Climate. 

The proximity of a refrigerating element of the charac- 
ter above described would naturally be attended with re- 
markable influences upon the coast and valley climates 
below; but there are factors other than that of simple 
thermal change complicating our present inquiry ; and to 
understand their force in relation to subsequent facts and 
conclusions, it will be necessary to recall certain other 
physical agencies. 

For the purpose of convenient geographical reference, an 
outline map of the South American continent accompanies 
this volume. 



CHAPTER IV. 

The Trade Winds. 

No estimate of climatic conditions, omitting a careful 
study of prevailing winds, could be possessed of any con- 
clusive character. The climate which would obtain if the 
atmosphere were entirely motionless — that which Hum- 
boldt has called the solar climate — must be regarded as 
quite a different thing from real climate. These observa- 
tions apply with peculiar force to the west coast of South 
America, as the author hopes to show before the conclusion 
of his remarks. .It will be requisite, therefore, briefly to 
consider the subject of winds, at this point. In doing so, 
however, it will simply be necessary to touch upon general 
principles, and make a local application only to the region 
under consideration. To attempt a complete statement of 
these important and complex agencies, with all their local 
modifications, would require an elaboration quite unneces- 
sary to the purpose of the present volume. 

The trade winds receive different names in different 
parts of the world. They are caused by the sun's heat and 
the revolution of the earth. The sun, by reason of the in- 
clination of the earth's axis to the plane of the ecliptic, is 
vertical to a much more extended surface within the tropics 
than would otherwise be the case; thereby producing a cer- 
tain degree of heat-compensation as between the points of 
relative proximity to the sun, arising from the greater con- 
vexity of the earth at the equator, and its decrease toward 
the poles. In consequence of these conditions the atmos- 



THE TRADE WIN^DS. 29 

phere of a considerable part of the tropics, though notably 
so about the equatorial belt, is heated to a much greater 
extent than elsewhere, and rising in obedience to the well- 
known law, the cold air flows in from the poles, thus creat- 
ing two general currents — the one from the north pole, 
and the other from the south pole toward the equatorial 
region ; the ascending current itself consisting of highly- 
heated air, with particles of moisture charged with latent 
heat. 

Were it possible to conceive the earth as stationary, but 
heated in this equal manner at the tropical belt, these two 
currents would flow in straight lines, along the meridians, 
from the poles to the equator, and all levels of the earth 
below the line of congelation w r ould receive a fixed quan- 
tum of annual rain, in accordance with latitude and some 
other modifying causes. As the earth, however, revolves 
upon its own axis from west to east, these two currents, in 
obedience to the laws of compound motion, are turned ob- 
liquely from the direct course; and hence it results that 
the north current blows from northeast to southwest, and 
the south current from southeast to northwest. In the 
equatorial region proper, a calm naturally exists by reason 
of the meeting of the two polar currents, as well as the 
friction of the earth and air. From this atmospheric stasis, 
rains occur in a certain belt north and south of the equa- 
tor, to a large extent uninfluenced by points of mountain 
elevation. 

The cold winds thus described as flowing from the poles 
to the tropics, are surface winds. The heated air of the 
equatorial belt, in rising to higher regions, has acquired a 
certain momentum from west to east imparted by the 
earth's rotation, and hence, these upper currents — called 
the anti-trades — flow off toward the poles in an oblique 
2* 



30 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

direction, the current in the northern hemisphere becom- 
ing a southivest wind, and that in the southern hemisphere 
&northivest wind. During the winter months of the south- 
ern hemisphere, when the latter current comes to the sur- 
face much sooner than during the summer, the South 
Pacific coast is frequently visited by " northers/' which are 
more destructive of shipping than any wind of that quarter 
of the globe. 

These lower and upper currents of cold and heated air 
are considered constant currents, and within particular 
restrictions, induced by a variety of modifying agencies, 
they undoubtedly are so. But the limits within which 
these winds play are circumscribed by the upper cur- 
rent of heated air gradually becoming cooled in its flight, 
until it falls to the surface, when it returns as a lower 
current, from the poles to the equator. Now, these limits 
are arbitrarily fixed at about the 25th or 28th degree, 
north and south; but 'the real fact is, that they con- 
stantly vary with the seasons — advancing to the north 
when the sun brings summer to the northern hemisphere, 
and to- the south when summer visits the opposite hemi- 
sphere. Hence, in the latter part of the world, the limit 
of the southeast trade is generally admitted to be as high 
as the 30th degree of south latitude ; but the writer's ob- 
servations lead him to believe it to be considerably higher 
than that. 

The foregoing description of the trade winds corre- 
sponds, in the main, with the generally accepted theory, 
and was first advanced by Halley, the English philosopher. 
It is proper to mention, however, that of late years, its cor- 
rectness has been disputed by some eminent authorities, as 
Dove, Wilkes and Blodget. Capt. Chas. Wilkes* rejects 

* " Theory of the Winds." etc. 



THE TRADE WIXDS. 31 

the purely calorific theory, and believes all winds in the 
middle latitudes to be caused by the unequal distribution 
of land surface and of heat. 

Blodget* substantially adopts the same view, and ad- 
duces the observations at different stations in the United 
States, which all go to show that in the middle latitudes of 
the temperate zone, a strong and uniform westerly move- 
ment constantly pertains; and that the belt which contains 
the westerly winds, is marked by constant or equally dis- 
tributed rains. 

Every one, whether professional or non-professional, ac- 
customed to observe the weather movements in our country, 
cannot have failed to notice the general prevalence of this 
west wind, spoken of by Blodget, and its accompanying 
rains. But a movement of air across a body of land, subject 
to thermal effects of a kind differing from those of water, 
and interspersed with elevations and depressions of surface 
complicating simple motion, must be attended as one would 
think, with very contrary results from those produced by 
the passage of air over the relatively plane surface of a body 
of water. 

The whole subject of winds, even within the latitudes 
assigned to the trades, is a very complicated one, and sur- 
rounded with contradictions of a most perplexing character. 
When the higher latitudes are reached, as, let us say, from 
the 25th or 28th parallels to the polar regions, each observer 
is left to form his own opinions; there being no well defined 
laws governing, or even general agreement as to the special 
causes and particular directions of, the winds. A portion of 
this latter region falls under consideration in these pages; 
and its sanitary, as well as economic and other characteris- 
tics, are affected in a very important manner by the direc- 

* " Climatology of the United States." 



32 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

tion of the winds, representing the distribution of rain, as 
will be illustrated further on. 

Why the Subject of Winds is Important. 

What may be the particular causes operating to pro- 
duce the trade winds over the great oceans, and a western 
wind over the middle belt of the North American continent, 
the latter constituting the rain-wind for that region, need 
not, for our present purposes, be further inquired into at 
this time. The writer believes it to be an indisputable fact, 
that there exists no regular belt of western winds, bringing 
constant or equally distributed rains to the north Pacific 
coast; and he is quite certain there exists none bringing 
such rains to the south Pacific coast; except in both in- 
stances, where such rains are made possible through circum- 
stances of land configuration. He believes from his own 
observations, that the southeast trade wind does operate 
within the limits stated, and in the manner described; and 
is de facto the great rain wind, if it may so be called, for the 
whole region bounded by its southern extension. This fact 
is fraught with the most momentous consequences to all 
those people, who live under the lee of the great mountain 
chain of the North and South American continents. 

On the North American continent, and to the east of the 
great mountain chain extending, under various names, from 
Patagonia far into British America, there exists no eleva- 
tion sufficiently great to bar off completely the otherwise 
natural distribution of rain and its accompanying results. 
The northeast trade blows uninterruptedly and carries its 
blessings over an extensive region. The southeast trade, 
which should carry the eastern clouds with which to fruc- 
tify the whole South American continent, is met by an icy 
barrier, arresting the clouds in their flight, robbing them of 



THE TRADE WINDS. 33 

every drop of moisture and creating districts to the west of 
the great chain, rainless during the whole or a portion of 
each year. Hence, the greater part of the south Pacific coast 
never receives any rain whatever from the eastern clouds; 
and a part of it, none from any source, except, possibly, as a 
rare phenomenon long to be talked of among the people. 

Where the Rains Come From. 

Physicists are agreed, that the land of our globe is heated 
by the sun with much greater intensity than the water of 
the oceans. This is considered due to the fact, that the 
solar heat does n©t penetrate below the earth's surface to 
so great an extent, as it does below the surface of the 
water. While penetrating one inch into the earth, it pene- 
trates water to the depth of many feet ; and it has been es- 
timated that the sun's rays impart one hundred times more 
heat to a given surface of ground in one day, than to an 
equal surface of water during an equal time. If this be true, 
and there can be little doubt of it, except as to degree, per- 
haps, it is an easy matter to understand the influence exer- 
cised by large bodies of land, in the production of local 
wind currents. The heated earth heats the stratum of air 
immediately resting upon it; the latter rises, and an asjn- 
ratory effect ensues, by which the cooler air of the adjacent 
ocean flows in to occupy the space left vacant by the rarefied 
air. 

As the result of careful study, the writer is convinced 
that this is the simple principle underlying the production 
of winds above the limits of the trades, modified as to 
force, amount and direction by various circumstances not 
necessary to enumerate here in detail. Between the low- 
est spurs of the Andes in Patagonia and the rise of the 
mountains again in Terra del Fuego, a southeast wind 



34 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

from the Atlantic prevails; but in accordance with the 
simple principle above stated, there is a general current of 
air from the south polar regions toward the southern conti- 
nent, producing a conflict of "contrary winds" about its 
extremity at Cape Horn, which any one who has "doubled" 
the latter in a sailing ship will have good cause to remem- 
ber. The general rush, however, is from the polar regions, 
as also to a less extent, from the ocean waters on the west. 

At the equator, or point of greatest convexity of the 
earth, the velocity of axial rotation is about nineteen miles 
j)er second. This velocity, of course, decreases in a certain 
gradation toward the poles; so that in the high latitudes 
herein spoken of, the earth has not a rotary velocity suffi- 
cient of itself to produce wind currents; hence, it results 
that the wind currents flow along the south Pacific coast, 
almost in the line of the meridians, or at furthest, from a 
point to the southwest. It is a common observation in 
Chile, that "the rains come from the south," and the fore- 
going is believed by the writer to be its proper explanation. 
In speaking of the rain clouds within the limits soon to be 
defined, they will be designated as the "polar clouds," 
under the above interpretation. 

Now in accordance with this origin of rain from the, 
southern regions, it is found that the northern limit of the 
rain line along the coast bears a constant relation to the 
seasons; or in other words, to the position of the sun. 
The southern part of the continent, up to a certain point, 
enjoys a regular rainfall throughout the year, from which 
point there is a regular decrease of the annual fall of rain 
until a point is reached in Bolivia extending through a 
great part of Peru, where rain never falls (except as pre- 
viously stated), being that region barred of its rain from 
the Atlantic clouds by the great mountain chain on the 



THE TRADE WINDS. 35 

east, and prevented from receiving any from the south 
by the sun, which causes its precipitation in the higher 
latitudes. During our winter in the northern hem- 
isphere, the sun is south of the equator, and in his 
southern advance cuts short the rainy season in the lo- 
calities successively subjected to his immediate influence, 
by causing rain precipitation in the advancing clouds. 
The local dew point is thus constantly receding before the 
solar advance. When the sun again goes north, the rain 
line follows him to its utmost limit, and winter and the 
rainy season go hand-in-hand. It results from this, as a 
matter of course, that different districts vary in the num- 
ber of months of annual rain which each enjoys. In the 
latitude of Santiago, Chile, where the author was resident, 
the rainy season only lasts about four months, while in the 
far southern part of Chile, it lasts throughout the year. 

This short description of the subjects of wind and rain, 
if carefully considered, will enable us to take another step 
in the investigation of the highly interesting field before 
us. 



CHAPTER V. 

The Earthquake Under Medical Scrutiny. 

We are now in better position to approach the consider- 
ation of the remarkable phenomena denominated earth- 
quakes. But what, it may be asked, have these to do with 
the medical man, or the subject of infectious diseases ? It 
is one of the main objects of these pages to consider that 
question. 

Every one knows that the generally accepted theories of 
earthquakes rest upon the assumption of an internal molten 
condition of our globe, through which gases are generated, 
producing tension and vibration of the earth's crust, either 
through waves or distant impact. Whether or not this 
internal molten condition exists, we need not here inquire. 
So far as the theories themselves are concerned, the author 
is bound to believe, in view of his own observations, that 
they are entirely fallacious. To go fully into the details of 
such a question would carry our special inquiry away from 
its purely medical character, far into the arena of the phys- 
ical sciences. It is a subject, however, which may be of 
interest from a medical standpoint; and while the author 
cannot hope that any opinion of his own, here expressed, 
will be taken as a thing probatum est, yet as he may, with 
propriety, adduce a few general arguments in support of 
what he has to say, he expects to show a reasonable basis, 
at least, for his conclusions. 

An earthquake, then, does not represent a mere vibra- 
tion of the earth in consequence of percussion or impact 



THE EARTHQUAKE UNDER MEDICAL SCRUTINY. 37 

at a distant point, but is directly caused oy the actual 
transmission of a certain form of energy, from point to 
point covering the manifestation of the attendant phe- 
nomena. 

As will be observed, this form of energy is not here 
expressly designated as the electric, though it seems impos- 
sible to imagine it as any other. Without doubt, every 
known form of force or energy proceeds from a single 
essence — the force unit, so to speak, of nature. While it 
is not impossible that the earthquake energy is a special 
transmutation of that force, it is not at all probable that it 
is so; indeed, every observed effect leads the author to 
believe it identical with electricity, and he has been accus- 
tomed to speak of it familiarly as terrestrial lightning. In 
making such a statement, he is aware that he places him- 
self entirely in opposition to all received opinions ; but his 
convictions are the result of personal experience and study, 
and should, upon that account, be entitled to a fair con- 
sideration. 

The occurrence of a pronounced earthquake is usually 
preceded, attended with, and followed by, a number of very 
singular phenomena. 

The antecedent events are generally of a meteorological 
character, and closely connected with conditions of atmos- 
pheric electricity, as we are commonly acquainted with 
them. So constantly is this the case, that it is quite possi- 
ble to state the time of the probable earthquake occurrence, 
weeks in advance, and with nearly the same certainty that the 
"probabilities" office at Washington maps out the weather 
changes. In the instance of the terrific earthquake at Kio- 
bamba in 1794, a prodigious number of shooting stars were 
seen at Quito before the shock occurred; and Humboldt 
tells us that on a certain night preceding a shock, the 
3 



38 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

mountain Cayambe appeared surrounded with meteorites 
for an entire hour. 

So emphatic and pronounced is the atmospheric altera- 
tion immediately preceding a shock, that the people of 
earthquake countries have learned to recognize "earth- 
quake weather " ; and the author is personally acquainted 
with reliable people in South America, who are able to 
predict some minutes in advance, that a shock is coming. 
One of these, a foreign minister, resident at Santiago, is 
awakened if asleep, a few minutes before a shock, and by 
those which are not preceded by a noise, as well as by those 
that are. Another case is that of a lady in the same city, 
who is generally able to predict violent shocks, for a consid- 
erable period in advance of their occurrence, by peculiar 
sensations which she claims to experience in her feet. In 
some regions of violent action, and notably in some pecu- 
liar localities in Bolivia, the hair of an animal, or the fur 
of a cap worn by a man, will become erected in connection 
with earthquake conditions. Many interesting and authen- 
tic facts of a like character could be given. 

The phenomena which attend the actual occurrence are 
many and instructive, and were the subject of observation 
and experiment by the author, who experienced a large 
number of earthquakes while in South America. 

The magnetic needle, when the observation is possible, 
always shows, during an earthquake, a disturbance, or 
deflection from the magnetic meridian of the spot where it 
is located. The writer had an improvised needle swung 
with a very delicate arrangement, which rendered it, to a 
sufficient extent, self-marking in its movements. It very 
constantly showed a disturbance to have occurred during 
every severe shock : which disturbance was, manifestly, 
always of a defined and methodical character, and not con- 
nected simply with a shaking of the instrument. 



THE EARTHQUAKE UNDER MEDICAL SCRUTINY. 39 

Quite recently, a corroboratory observation has been 
made by Mons. Lamont, Director of the Observatory at 
Munich, who states that by chance he saw the declination 
needle receive a sudden jerk, the oscillation continuing for 
some time.. After several days, he received news that vio- 
lent oscillations of the needle had been observed at Parma, 
and subsequent computations showed that the movement 
had begun at the same moment in Parma and Munich • 
while later still, reports were received of a violent earth- 
quake occurring simultaneously in Greece. 

The phenomena folloiving an earthquake of any severity 
are also very interesting. If the sky be clear before the 
shock, it usually becomes clouded at once, or very soon 
after, and a fall of rain is apt to occur; but if the sky be 
already clouded, the fall of rain is generally precipitated in 
a very short time; and it is not only a curious, but like- 
wise an instructive fact, that if the rainfall be copious or 
prolonged, the danger of immediately-recurring shocks is 
over. 

One of the most remarkable effects of an earthquake of 
any special force, an interesting one to the medical man, is 
the free generation in the air of a principle, which responds 
to all the tests of the body called ozone. The experiments 
made in determination of this point were various, and con- 
tinued through a period of three years. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Concerning Ozone. 

Let us leave, temporarily, the subject under immediate 
consideration, and give present attention to this mysterious 
body, so illy understood, even in our own day. 

Ozone is a peculiar something, better known by what it 
does than by what it really is. The occasional presence of 
an unusual ingredient in the atmosphere has probably been 
realized by its simple odor ever since the advent of an air- 
breathing animal upon our earth. The writer was on 
board a vessel at Colon, when the mainmast was struck and 
shivered by a bolt of lightning. He was also once upon a 
train of cars suddenly thrown from the track while at a 
high rate of speed. The intense sulphurous smell was as 
remarkable when caused by the grinding and friction of 
iron wheels and rails, as when evolved by the electrical 
stroke. Homer distinctly speaks of the sulphurous smell 
of a thunderbolt, in the Odyssey as well as in the Iliad ; 
and, doubtless, the personal experience of many of the 
author's readers has rendered it familiar to them. 

The discovery of ozone followed as a consequent of the 
discovery of oxygen in 1774. In experimenting with the 
"vital air," Van Marum, of Holland, about the year 1785, 
passed electric sparks through a jar of oxygen, and found 
that a peculiar smell w T as produced, while the gas had 
acquired a new power — that of acting directly upon mer- 
cury. In 1839, Schonbein, the Professor of Chemistry at 
Basle, discovered the same smell while experimenting upon 



CONCERNING OZONE. 41 

the decomposition of water by Voltaic electricity. From 
this time to our own, the new principle has been investi- 
gated by thousands of earnest inquirers, but although its 
existence has been recognized, and its effects well observed, 
its ultimate composition is still subject-matter of doubt 
with many. Our new chemistry fixes the formula of oxygen 
as 2? and ozone as consisting of an additional atom, would 
be represented by the formula 3 , or 2 0, its formation 
being dependent upon the condensation of oxygen into 
two-thirds its former volume. If this statement be correct, 
the oxidizing power of ozone consists in the facility with 
which each molecule loses its third atom; and hence it is 
simply oxygen in an allotropic condition. 

Following the settled existence of a body called ozone, 
came the discovery that it was an oxidizing agent of great 
energy, and the most powerful disinfectant known, in its 
concentrated state exceeding in bleaching properties even 
chlorine; which latter, it may be claimed, can only exert 
its peculiar properties in presence of, or in connection with, 
a certain proportion of oxygen. 

Then came a knowledge of the constant existence of the 
ozone principle, in greater or less proportions, in the atmos- 
phere ; and that the " purifying" effects of a thunder-storm 
were due, not alone to the washing out of the air, but to the 
destruction of the impurities themselves by the development 
of ozone, through electrical action. And further than this, 
ozone was found to be produced incessantly by agencies less 
violent than thunder-storms, which evolve electricity con- 
tinuously. Faraday discovered that the friction of water 
drops against air developed negative electricity; and Hum- 
boldt, that a waterfall or lofty cascade fills the surrounding 
air with negative electricity. Hence the fall of rain, dew, 
hail or snow produces it, as do the friction of atmospheric 



42 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

currents, the dash of sea waves upon each other and upon 
the rocks and shore, and the thermal changes brought 
about by evaporation from rivers, lakes and seas. 

Further still, ozone is now claimed to be developed in 
the air by plants, trees and nearly all kinds of vegetation, 
and hence has come the recommendation to plant sun- 
flowers and other varieties of odoriferous flora, as a protec- 
tion against " malaria," which latter ozone is supposed to 
destroy; and recently the Australian gum-tree has been 
extensively cultivated for this purpose. 

Following these developments came the suggestion that 
the sanitary state of communities was directly influenced 
by the plus or minus quantity of existing ozone. Schon- 
bein himself was firmly of the opinion that epidemic dis- 
eases had an existence inversely in proportion to the 
quantity of free ozone in the atmosphere, and cited in 
proof the assumed fact of zymotic diseases being least 
prevalent in winter, when the amount of ozone is greatest. 
These views were held by many others whose opinions were 
entitled to respect, and experimentalists in all parts of the 
scientific world began observations, with the view of noting 
the connection between prevalent diseases and the amount 
of existing atmospheric ozone. 

Many of these were made in connection with cholera 
visitations, and were upon a very extended scale, as those of 
Glaisher, Moffatt and Hunt, of England ; Cook, of Bom- 
bay; Smallwood, of Canada: Fournet, of Lyons; Peter, of 
Lexington ; Seitz, of Munich ; Denza, of Turin ; Kobert, 
of Neudorf; Simonin, of Nancy; Strambio, of Milan; Wolf, 
of Berne ; and many others. Apparently systematic observa- 
tions have also been made to determine the relationships 
between the amount of existent ozone and such affections 
as catarrh, influenza, pulmonary consumption, and diseases 



CONCERNING OZONE. 43 

of the respiratory tract in general; typhus and typhoid 
fever; rheumatism; malarial fevers; diphtheria; small-pox; 
scarlatina; the cattle plague; and descending to the vegeta- 
ble world, the "potato" and " grape" diseases. 

Most unfortunately, the reported results of all these 
observations are so very conflicting as to furnish no data 
upon which to erect any certain lights which may go to 
illuminate the dark corridors of disease-causation. So far 
as cholera is concerned, perhaps, the weight of evidence is 
favorable to the antidotal and preventive properties of 
ozone. In general, however, it may be said that no definite 
and specific laws have been discovered governing the effects 
of this remarkable body in health and disease; though 
when it is remembered what an extensive field exists in the 
attempt to study our atmosphere, involving as it does a 
knowledge of chemistry, meteorology and other of the 
physical sciences, but above all, the imperfect and precari- 
ous tests for ozone, as yet in our possession, it is hardly to 
be wondered at that the results thus far obtained are so 
contradictory and widely divergent. 

Tests for Ozone, 

The writer gives below the tests for atmospheric ozone : 

1. Potassium Iodide. 

2. Bed Litmus and Potassium Iodide. 

3. Pure Silver. 

4. Copper and Acetic Acid. 

5. Potassium Iodide and Starch. 

6. Thallic Oxide. 

7. Manganous Sulphate. 

8. Lead Sulphide. 

9. Resin of Guaiacum. 

10. Indigo. 

11. Certain Fungi. 



44 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

Very few of the above are at all reliable as tests for ozone, 
since other purifying principles exist in the air, as the per- 
oxide of hydrogen (called by some ant ozone, and by Frank- 
land hydroxyl), and the acid compounds of nitrogen and 
sulphur; any of the last named being capable of acting 
upon different tests, and thus destroying their value. The 
popular test in use consists of a slip of paper which has 
been dipped in a solution of potassium iodide and starch — it 
being known that ozone ill decomposing the iodide and set- 
ting free the iodine, allows the latter to unite with the starch, 
whereby a blue color is struck upon the paper. The value 
of this test is entirely destroyed, however, by the fact of the 
atmospheric disinfectants above named producing the same 
effect. In the use of any ozonoscope whatever, it is essen- 
tial that it be protected from currents of air; that the tem- 
perature should constitute part of the observation, and that 
light itself should be excluded, these conditions requiring 
an apparatus in the shape of a box, with an attachment 
whereby exposure of a given surface only may take place 
in a given time. These considerations, coupled with the 
circumstance of the impurity of many articles of commer- 
cial drugs, and even foods (much of the potassium iodide 
of the shops being adulterated with the carbonates, sul- 
phates and chlorides of potash, soda and lime; and the 
starch by sulphuric acid, lime and salts of chlorine), render 
the reliability of general observations upon ozone very 
questionable indeed. 

When it is remembered that many recorded observations 
relating to the connection between the amount of existent 
ozone and various diseases, as cause and effect, have for a 
basis the simple flying of a bit of starch-paper out of a win- 
dow, their worth may be judged in the light of the forego- 
ing statements; and there need be no surprise that many 



CONCERNING OZONE. 45 

eminent scientists and medical men have ignored the whole 
subject; nor that Prof. Henry, of the Smithsonian, should 
have declared that "there were no trustworthy observations 
on ozone made in the United States"; nor that a commit- 
tee of the council of Scottish Meteorological Society should 
have reported in 1869, that " no method has yet been de- 
vised by which it can be ascertained that ozone, and ozone 
(done, is the coloring agent"; nor that a French savant, 
Mons. Cloez, concludes that ozonometric observations are 
destitute of value — "riont aucune espece cle vcdeurP 

The writer in his South American observations used 
three or four different tests as corrective of each other, but 
relied chiefly upon the iodized litmus of the French observ- 
ers, as being, in his judgment, altogether the most trust- 
worthy and free from objection; and believing, with Fox, 
that it is practically uninfluenced by any other known con- 
stituent of the air. For the information of those who do not 
know its mode of preparation, it may be stated that it can 
be made by simply dipping red litmus paper into a dilute 
solution of potassium iodide. Under the influence of ozone, 
the iodide is decomposed, and the potassium being oxidized 
to form the free alkali potassa, the litmus assumes the 
usual blue color, varying in intensity according to the 
existent amount of alkali, the latter depending, of course, 
upon the amount of the oxidizing agent. 

General Properties of Ozone. 

Some of the observations which have heretofore been 
made upon this subject, as well as some which are still to 
follow under this head, as considered in their bearing and 
points of application — if any they have — would more ap- 
propriately fall under the third part of this little volume, 
which latter aims to be of a purely medical character, if 



46 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

such an expression be permissible. The writer, however, 
desires to preserve the continuity of each subject discussed, 
so far as possible ; and therefore proceeds with his further 
remarks upon ozone and its collateral questions of interest. 

Ozone is the most powerful disinfectant and purifier 
known, destroying atmospheric contaminations upon a 
large scale, which, but for this agent, would be fatal to hu- 
man life. The details of an experiment, whereby the putri- 
fied blood of an ox, exhaling most offensive gases, was 
rendered entirely sweet, and regained the power of coagula- 
tion, by passing over it a stream of ozone, are probably well 
known to all. 

The relative diminution or apparent entire absence of 
free ozone, as regards the air of all great cities, as well as 
many smaller ones, results from the necessarily large de- 
mands made for the disinfection of impurities generated by 
the aggregation of people in confined districts, and envi- 
roned with all the refuse of manufactories, as well as of 
the industries and personal necessities of daily life. Hence 
the expediency of the very general custom which avoids 
the construction of hospitals in thickly-settled portions of 
a city, or in the vicinity of noxious or odorous emanations. 

Its Effect upon Man mid Animals. 

Ozone in sufficient concentration would be destructive 
of the lives of man and animals alike. They could no more 
live in pure ozone than in pure oxygen ; hence the neces- 
sity of proper dilution. With an amount not exceeding 
the normal maximum, a general invigoration of all the 
functions is experienced; and in such an atmosphere, it 
may be asserted that, other things being equal (the excep- 
tion to be noted hereafter), the greatest human longevity is 
attained. In this connection may be cited the robustness 



CONCERNING OZONE. 47 

of mountaineers in general, and of dwellers near certain 
seacoasts and in or near pine forests, in all of which locali- 
ties the elimination of ozone is in constant activity. 

Its effect upon animals is similar to that upon man, but 
it would appear that the susceptibility of different species 
varies, and the toxic amounts have as yet no determined re- 
lationships. The effects are said to be more pronounced 
upon rats, for example, than upon guinea-pigs; and upon 
the latter than upon rabbits. Air containing the one six- 
thousandth part of ozone, destroys mice immediately. Birds 
in general bear a large percentage of ozone, beca-use of their 
life in the upper air; and it is here interesting to note, that 
the South American Condor (the Sarcoramphus Gry pirns), 
inhabiting the highest passes of the Andes from 12,000 to 
15,000 feet above the sea, and able to soar to a perpendicular 
height of six miles above its level,* and therefore a bird of 
immense power and development, attains to great longevity. 
The writer brought home a specimen for the Yale College 
museum, which must have been a very patriarch in his soli- 
tudes of snow and ice. 

Its Effect upon Insects and Aerial Organisms. 

Some interesting experiments were made by the w r riter, 
to determine the effect of ozone upon small insect life, many 
varieties of which were placed under bell-glasses, so arranged 
that the silent electric spark might be passed through the 
contained air, and a fixed amount of ozone generated there- 
by. Death uniformly resulted, sooner or later, in accord- 
ance with the percentage of ozone to the quantum of air. 

As to the destructive effect of ozone upon aerial organ- 
isms, whether of an animal or vegetable character, we have 
some presumptive evidence, strengthened by the results of 

* Gilliss' U. S. Naval Astronomical Expedition to the Southern Hemisphere. 



48 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

observation and experiment. The purifying effects of a 
thunder-storm are well known to all, and the frequent, if 
not constant mitigation of a prevalent epidemic influence, 
even though temporary, after sharp electrical manifestations, 
must be especially familiar to every observant medical man. 

Mr. Lea, of Philadelphia, has published a paper in Silli- 
man's Journal (vol. xxxvii, 2d series, 1864) on " The Influ- 
ence of Ozone and Some Other Chemical Agents on Germi- 
nation and Vegetation," of a highly interesting character. 
He has shown that the growth and vigor of plants is retard- 
ed and impaired in air strongly impregnated with ozone, 
simple vegetable structures, as mould, being completely de- 
stroyed under such an influence. 

Other experiments have been performed, also, which go 
to show, that ozone has some power, at least, to destroy the 
invisible entity constituting the producing cause of malari- 
ous or periodic diseases. The word entity is here used, be- 
cause the proof of such causation regarding the above named 
class of diseases is conclusive, whatever doubt may still exist 
as to the real materies morhi of the general infectious dis- 
eases. The mechanical. protection afforded by a curtain of 
moistened canvas hung between the sources of the malarial 
influence and the adjacent dwelling, is well established, and 
admits of no other interpretation. 

It must be admitted, however, that up to this time, ex- 
periment has failed to establish fixed axioms regarding the 
precise relationships of ozone not only toward parasitic life 
in general, but, also, toward that remarkable class of dis- 
eases, capable of suddenly invading the citadel of health by 
unseen enemies and through unknown portals, and with 
giant hands, laying it in ruins. The whole subject is one 
of immense difficulty, as involving forces and agencies of 
nature with which we are but little acquainted, and with 



CONCER^IXG OZONE. 49 

whose etherial existence we have but few channels of com- 
munication. 

Conclusion as to Ozone. 

But the author has stated the free elimination of ozone 
to be one of the consequences of earthquake action. That 
this is a fact, he believes as the result of his own observa- 
tions, as well as from many strongly corroboratory circum- 
stances, one of which he desires to mention in conclusion of 
the subject. One Mons. de la Torre has recorded bis experi- 
ences of an earthquake in one of the copper mines of Cuba, 
which converted the town of Santiago on that island into 
a heap of ruins, November 1, 1852.* The chief occurrences 
of note, were the fearful and extraordinary noise; the rising 
and falling of the ground, and the filling of the mine with 
such an intense smell of sulphur, that had the narrator pos- 
sessed any experience with the body called ozone, he must 
have recognized its presence, at once. 

Before closing these remarks upon the properties of 
ozone, the writer desires to acknowledge his indebtedness to 
Dr. Fox, of Edinburgh, for many of the facts herein given 
concerning a body possessed of such profound interest to the 
medical man.f 

Ant ozone. 

It is quite probable that this principle is very constantly 
developed under the same conditions which operate to gen- 
erate ozone. The author made no experiments to test the 
question. Antozone is said to be the peroxide of hydrogen, 
and by many is supposed simply to represent oxygen in that 
indefinite, hypothetical state expressed by the v^ord positive; 
while ozone itself exists in the opposite or negative state — 
two terms, however, destined ere long to be entirely ban- 
ished from the nomenclature of science. 

'• Volcanoes and Earthquakes. "' By MM. Zurcher and Margalle. London. 1874. 
t "Ozone and antozone." By C. B. Fox. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Further Consideration of the Earthquake. 

After this somewhat lengthy digression, the author 
desires to return to the subject of earthquakes for a short 
time. He has heretofore stated some propositions con- 
cerning the cause of earthquakes and their attendant phe- 
nomena, which, doubtless, will be considered novel by all, 
and fallacious by many. If they be true, however, they 
have an importance, in a medical sense, difficult of over- 
estimation. Certain additional facts concerning the phe- 
nomena of earthquakes and the induction of peculiar atmo- 
spheric states, have been reserved to this point, that the 
various cooperating agencies might be considered together, 
and gradually brought to such convergence as to render 
their combined effects easy of consideration. 

Certain mention of electrical disturbances in the atmo- 
sphere, preceding the shock of an earthquake, has already 
been made; and it must be understood that reference is 
always had to those of some violence, and not to the simple 
tremors, so often experienced in earthquake regions. The 
Spanish Americans have two names for these occurrences, 
according to their degree of violence — los temllores, the 
slight ; and los terremotos, the strong and destructive. 

The electrical accompaniments spoken of are constant, 
and have been noted in all ages and in all localities of 
which we have definite record. In the case of the city of 
Lisbon, where 30,000 people perished in a few minutes, as 
the result of an earthquake, the preceding electrical phe- 



FURTHER CONSIDERATION OF THE EARTHQUAKE. 51 

nomena have been graphically described; as also a well- 
established fact of strong correlative importance, viz : that 
Mount Vesuvius, which was in full eruption at the time, 
became quiet at the moment of the shock. 

Some beautiful electrical displays have been witnessed 
by the writer in South America, two of which he may be 
excused for specifically mentioning. Upon the occasion of 
a pleasant night, there appeared in the sky a long narrow 
ridge of cloud, stretching from the clouds of Magellan on 
the west toward the land on the east. Otherwise the sky 
was clear, and presented the marvelous appearance of trans- 
parent atmosphere, through which every star in the heavens 
appears as brilliant as a diamond, but which so often pre- 
sages a coming shock. Suddenly the aurora australis lit 
up the southern sky, from the pole to the cloud above men- 
tioned, glimmering like the soft sheen of a midsummer's 
moon. " We shall have a shake before morning," said a 
friend to the writer, while looking at the beautiful phe- 
nomenon. Scarcely was the sentence completed when it 
came like a rush of lost spirits, clanking their chains in 
the wildnesa of despair. 

Upon another occasion, the writer was enjoying a balmy 
evening in the plaza at Valparaiso. The night, though soft 
and pleasant, was dark, there being no moon, and the sky 
clouded. Suddenly the whole city was illuminated with a 
brilliant light from the clouds above, which latter resem- 
bled the phosphorescent ocean. In a few seconds the light 
was gone, but in its wake came the temblor. The next day 
it w T as learned from the interior that a meteor, of surpassing 
brightness and size, had passed over the sky from southwest 
to northeast, in advance of the shock. The appearance of 
meteors in Chile, during the earthquake season, is so com- 
mon as to excite but little comment. 



52 PHYSICS OP THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

Another electrical manifestation, however, of far more 
importance, is the occurrence of " summer lightning" upon 
the tops and to the east of the Andes. This is almost of 
nightly occurrence during the summer, or dry season. As 
often seen by the author in his travels, it appeared as 
though the elements were waging battle together; or that 
the demons of the mountains, like Eip Van Winkle's 
ghostly community, were bowling mammoth ten-pin balls 
among the lofty granite peaks. 

Earthquakes and Thunder-storm*. 

While these manifestations of electrical action exist in 
connection with the earthquake regions of South America, 
there is another very curious, very interesting and very 
instructive circumstance, consisting of this: that in the 
earthquake districts proper there are never any storms of 
rain with thunder and lightning, except to a limited dis- 
tance upon either side of the equator, occurring through 
natural causes and irrespective of questions of land eleva- 
tion. The writer uses the word never, though it is not 
strictly correct; but such things are so very exceptional 
as to render the statement quite the rule. He was a wit- 
ness to one storm of thunder and lightning in Santiago, 
which seemed to terrify the people more than a half-dozen 
temblor es would have done, although he endeavored to con- 
vince his friends that it would bring a respite from earth- 
quakes, for a time at least, as it certainly did. 

And here the author will state, what he believes to be a 
law governing earthquakes, viz: in regions of country sit- 
uated away from the immediate influence of volcanic action ; 
out of the line of transit between two elevated ranges, or an 
elevated range upon the windward side and an ocean upon 
the lee; in regions receiving a proportionate or regularly 



FURTHER CONSIDERATION OF THE EARTHQUAKE. 53 

distributed annual rainfall, earthquakes cannot exist except 
as erratic phenomena. 

Let those who have any experience in the affected regions, 
under consideration in this volume, recall the very signifi- 
cant fact, that when the immediate influence of the great 
magnetic chain of the Andes is escaped, no earthquakes 
occur to the east of them. Mendoza, situated upon the 
eastern base of the Andes, was destroyed by an earthquake 
in 1866 ; but the town was built upon or near the base of 
the mountains. Except as an erratic occurrence, like simi- 
lar ones in non-earthquake parts of the world, and easily 
explainable upon the general principles herein laid down, 
no one ever heard of an earthquake on the great pampas of 
the Argentine Kepublic, or on the South American Atlantic 
coast, where there exists a regular fall of rain from the 
clouds of the southeast trade, and sufficiently away from 
infected mountain districts to escape their influence. 

Upon the contrary, it is susceptible of direct proof, that 
the earthquake propensity upon the west coast of Chile is 
inversely to the annual rainfall. In the regions of northern 
Chile, where there is a minimum rainfall, the shocks are 
frequent and terrific; in central Chile, where about a four 
months' rainfall is enjoyed, they are less frequent and less 
severe; in southern Chile, below Valdivia, where there is 
much more rain, the shocks are slight as a rule, and infre- 
quent; while in southern Patagonia and about Punta 
Arenas, in the Straits of Magellan, where there is an ap- 
proach to a regularly-distributed annual rainfall, they are 
said to be an unknown phenomenon. An occasional in- 
fliction, however, might easily occur in view of the prox- 
imity of the neighboring peaks of Terra del Fuego. 

From the foregoing observations, it may be correctly 
inferred, that the author of these pages entertains this 
3* 



54 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

belief: that if all the mountains of the world were leveled 
down to a height permitting of an unobstructed and regu- 
lar annual rainfall in its various parts, while we should 
have frequent storms, with pretty brilliant, startling and 
sometimes destructive, electrical manifestations, the earth- 
quake would be an impossible phenomenon. Hence, the 
writer, when frequently asked in South America, if, in his 
belief, earthquakes were preventable, he invariably replied, 
that they could be pretty effectually prevented, — by leveling 
down the Andes, so that there would be no altitude above, 
or near, the snow-line. 



CHAPTEE VIII. 

A Keview of the Position. 

The author's record book teems with collected facts 
relating to the subjects herein treated, all of which he 
hopes to put in a more systematic shape in a special trea- 
tise. His present object being a double one, that of study- 
ing a particular region of the world, in both its physical 
and medical aspects, the one must be subordinated, to some 
extent, to the other. 

Let us look behind us for a few moments, in order to 
discover where we stand. We have learned that the South 
American continent is traversed near its western border, by 
a lofty mountain range ; that this range runs, practically, 
from south to north as far as the 18th degree of south lati- 
tude, thus presenting a broad front to the south Atlantic 
sea-board ; that from this point it trends off to the north- 
west as far as the 5th degree, when it turns to the north- 
east, and is lost before reaching the Isthmus of Panama, 
thus rearing a defiant front to the waters of the tropics on 
the north and east. We have seen that the clouds brought 
over by the southeast trade, which should irrigate the west 
coast of the continent, are arrested in their flight by the 
ice-peaks of the Andes, and robbed of their moisture ; and 
that in consequence of this, the portion of that coast south 
of the 5th degree gets whatever rain it receives from 
another source, principally, if not solely, from the clouds of 
the south polar region, except at the southern part of the 
continent, where the mountain chain shelves down to an 



56 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

extent permitting, probably, some rainfall from the east. 
We have seen that earthquakes are frequent throughout 
the region, which is rainless, in whole or in part; that 
electrical manifestations are very constant as associated 
events; and lastly, that the body answering to the tests 
for ozone, while not always markedly present in the at- 
mosphere, becomes exceedingly abundant after a decided 
earthquake. 

Interpretation of the Facts. 

What is the logical interpretation of this chain of facts ? 
Simply this: that there follows, as a consequence of the 
physical construction herein dwelt upon, an interruption 
of that energic equilibrium of this region, which otherwise 
would be brought about through the medium of thunder- 
storms; and that earthquakes, with all their accompanying 
horrors, result from nature's efforts to restore that equilib- 
rium. The rain clouds of a certain part of the world are 
brought by the prevailing winds against an elevated barrier 
covered with ice, and are at once arrested in their flight, 
and completely robbed of their moisture through condensa-' 
tion ; the electricity which they have collected by heat and 
friction in their passage, and which is evolved by the 
change of water from a vaporous to a liquid form, is dis- 
charged into the earth. This fact is beautifully illustrated 
in the latitude of Santiago de Chile during the summer 
months. The sun then being far south of the equator, the 
rain line of the sputh polar clouds is driven to the extreme 
southern part of the continent, while the Atlantic clouds 
are caught and held by the tops of the Andes. During 
the whole summer of eight months' duration in this lati- 
tude, the play and interchange of lightning can be seen 
going on in those mountain fastnesses; and as the earth 
at those points becomes excessively charged, the surplus 



A REVIEW OF THE POSITION. 57 

energy is transferred, in a quiet manner by direct con- 
duction, to the waters of the adjoining ocean. During this 
whole time an enormous accumulation of the particular 
form of energy denominated electricity, must be taking 
place in those portions of the earth. The magnetic pole of 
the southern hemisphere has not yet been satisfactorily 
determined. It may or may not have a relationship to the 
earthquake region. 

As the. seasons revolve, the sun again goes north, and 
the. southern latitudes experience winter. As the earth 
cools, the south polar rain clouds advance to the north, 
until they meet a temperature sufficiently high to precipi- 
tate their moisture in the form of rain ; thus establishing 
the rainy season, which varies in duration for each locality, 
of course, in relation to its latitude and actual temperature. 
It is during the season when these clouds prevail, i.e., the 
winter season, that earthquakes predominate, the rationale 
being thus: the earth and adjacent ocean have been highly 
charged with the electric energy during the previous 
summer; when the great nebulous mass approaches from 
the south, overspreading the whole southern sky, and 
nears an elevated peak, an attempt at equilibrious res- 
toration occurs, this having been previously prevented by 
the circumstance of dry air itself being a non-conductor. 
When the approach is sufficiently close, the discharge takes 
place, with terrific effect, as not a single cloud, but a great 
sea of clouds, is implicated. It thus results that the effects 
are upon so large a scale, the electric energy rushing, so to 
speak, from all the supercharged territory to participate in 
the equilibrious attempt, including that portion stored in 
the adjacent waters. 

The fact of a participation in the earthquake action by 
the neighboring ocean, whatever may be the explanation of 



58 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

that action, is a well established truth. Darwin* dwells 
upon this accompanying agitation of the sea, as observed 
while on his voyage in the Beagle — as have other writers. 
The author has frequently noticed, that after a shock of 
any severity, affecting the city of Valparaiso, in Chile, the 
water in the bay, although very deep, and never yet affected 
by the dread " tidal wave/' is invariably discolored. 

Upon the foregoing explanation of these remarkable phe- 
nomena, which the author believes to be the correct one — 
so far, at least, as the general principle involved is con- 
cerned, it is quite easy to understand many very obscure 
things in connection with them. As, for instance, why 
rain always falls over some portion of the affected district, 
after a shock ; and why, when once the fall begins, the 
assurance is popularly felt, that so long as it continues, 
there is no further danger of any severe manifestation. In 
the first case, the electrical action produces that change of 
temperature, necessary to cause precipitation from the 
clouds ; and in the second case, each little stream of rain 
acts as a conducting wire between the earth and clouds, in- 
suring against further violent action, so long as the com- 
munication is thus maintained. 

During nearly three hundred shocks of earthquake, 
which the author experienced or recorded, while in South 
America, two thirds of that number were attended with 
a clouded sky at the point of observation ; and of those 
not so attended, ample evidence of the existence of such 
a state, in a locality sufficiently near to connect one 
with the other, was always obtained. Hence, the well 
known fact, that however clear the sky when a violent 
shock occurs, rain generally follows soon after, over the 
whole district affected by it ; and as the author believes, 

* k - Naturalist's Voyage Round the World." By Chas. Darwin. M.A., F.R.iS. 



A REVIEW OF THE POSITION". 59 

always over some portion of the latter. Another fact 
which is here worthy of mention, is that of a rise of the 
thermometer to the extent of from one half to even two 
degrees, immediately in connection with the shock. The 
increase of temperature thus indicated, has been disputed 
by Gilliss, but the author believes it actually to occur. 

These observations upon the causation of earthquakes, 
though made more directly in reference to South America, 
are equally applicable, it is believed, to all other parts of 
the world where these phenomena occur. In the case of 
the great Asiatic range — the Himalayas — it appears a for- 
tunate circumstance that they do not stand, like the Andes, 
in a direction forming a practical and an extensive barrier 
to the prevalent winds, which supply the regular rainfall. 
Though their general course is practically parallel with 
these w T inds (not altogether so, in fact), yet local irregulari- 
ties throw them, at points, into the attitude of barriers 
against such winds ; and where they do so, the earthquake 
is invariably developed under the lee. 

There are localities where earthquakes are frequent and 
destructive, the surrounding conditions of which would 
seem to negative the foregoing theories, so far as the ques- 
tion of rainfall is concerned. It is believed by the author, 
however, that all such localities are in the immediate vicin- 
ity of volcanic action. 



CHAPTER IX. 

The Fokces of Nature. 

Ik attempting to read and interpret the book of Nature, 
we discover, at once, what mere children we are, and how 
utterly incapable we seem, of understanding even its very 
rudiments. We are accustomed to speak of the " forces " of 
nature; but how little do we really know of them! What 
are these forces ? We may answer readily, gravitation ; 
molecular cohesion and chemical affinity ; heat and light ; 
electricity and the vital force; but in such an answer we 
but recognize effects, without approaching the question of 
causes. We take the known number, and let x represent 
the unknown, but with no apparent possibility of working 
out the representative quantity. 

When we approach the questions underlying the secrets 
of the cosmos, we must do so only with the hope of being- 
able to trace effects, and with no expectation of determin- 
ing the inherent nature of cause. We may analyze to a 
certain extent, but we have no synthetic power. We can- 
not say why a stone falls to the earth when tossed into the 
air, but we knoiv by observation that there is some agency 
which compels it to do so, if not mechanically impeded. 
And our knowledge does not stop with that, We know 
that its fall occurs with mathematical precision. We know 
some other things about it, too; and though we have never 
seen the face of our servant, we have learned his habits and 
his power, and have set him to do certain work for us, his 
capability for which, in particular instances, we find sus- 
ceptible of precise estimation by figures and measures. 



THE FORCES OE MATURE. 61 

All this seems wonderful enough, but we have extended 
our knowledge so as to embrace useful information con- 
cerning the great worlds within our view; and still more 
wonderful, to estimate the character and weight of the 
ultimate atom of matter, which apparently lies as far beyond 
our vision as the essence which animates it. Hence it 
seems not at all improbable that we shall, at some time, be 
able much more completely than now to hedge and environ 
some of the profound mysteries of nature; and to unfold 
their ramifications to an extent enabling us to promote 
our further interests by the observed laws which govern 
them. 

This is all, however. It is useless to speculate upon a 
subject belonging to the Infinite plan. We are children in 
comprehension, and it is better to adopt the philosophy of 
a child than attempt to be superhumanly wise. " Do you 
know what makes the ball always go up ?" asked the author 
of a little boy with one of the pretty toy balloons filled 
with hydrogen gas, sold upon the streets. " Yes, sir," was 
the prompt reply. " Why, then ? " " Because it ivonH stay 
doiun" Like the prophet of the Hebrews, we may see the 
promised land from afar, but as mortals we can never 
enter it. 

What have we settled then as to the " forces" of nature ? 
Many things concerning their modes of action, as before 
said. As to gravitation, we have confirmed the law formu- 
lated by Newton. " Every particle of matter in the universe 
attracts every other particle with a force directly propor- 
tioned to the mass of the attracting particle, and inversely 
to the square of the distance between them." Gravitation 
then is a resident force which determines bodies to rush 
together. As between the particles of matter, it is desig- 
nated molecular cohesion and chemical affinity, the force 
4 



62 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

being, without doubt, precisely the same thing in both 
instances. 

Definition of Force and Energy, 

With the modern developments concerning the trans- 
mutation of energy, there seems to have arisen a great deal 
of scientific looseness of expression in reference to the 
terms "force" and "energy," which tends to much con- 
fusion in the discussion of these subjects; particularly as 
the physicist's definition of the words is hardly the popular 
one ; but rather technical in character. 

Force, in general, as has just been said of gravitation in 
particular, is a resident property of matter which tends to 
create motion. We do not know, nor can we reasonably 
expect ever to know, the innate nature of this property. 
Science gives no interpretation of the essence, but only 
takes cognizance of the characteristics. Neither do we 
know whether the property be inherent to matter or derived 
from some other source ; though it appears to the author 
not to be inherent in any sense. Neither do we know 
whether there exists but a single unit of force, or whether 
we have a number of force units. The author believes with 
those who maintain the former. But whatever its nature ; 
whatever its source, and whatever its numerical attributes, 
it is the principle which underlies all motion in the uni- 
verse — whether of gravitation, of molecular attraction, or 
of chemical affinity. 

What then is energy ? It is the manifestation of force. 
Force is the essence, and energy its representative. Force 
is the power, and energy the action. If a stone fall to the 
earth, force constitutes the potver which determines its fall; 
but energy represents the action of the fall itself. 

But the use of the word energy has been extended to 
express, not alone the idea of activity in operation, but also, 



THE FORCES OF NATURE. 63 

of activity in repose, paradoxical as the expression may 
seem. That is to say, energy may exist in a state of actual 
operation, as when a body moves through space; or it may 
exist by reason of the conditions upon which action depends 
having been complied with, although the action itself is 
not brought into present display ; as when a body is lying 
at rest, at an elevated position, and only awaits the removal 
of the obstacle detaining it, in order to assume motion and 
fall through space as before. 

Divisions of Energy. 

Energy is of two kinds, therefore, which might best be 
named active and passive, but which are usually denom- 
inated actual or dynamic, and potential or energy of posi- 
tion, the former representing energy in action, and the 
latter energy ivaiting for action. The same idea was for- 
merly expressed by the terms vis viva for the first, and ten- 
sion for the second state. 

The sum of these two energies in the universe is a con- 
stant quantity; and hence it is said that there is no such 
thing as creating or destroying energy, just as there is no 
such thing as creating or destroying matter. 

Transmutation of Energy. 

Our modern idea of heat says that it is not a substantial 
entity, as formerly supposed, but a species of motion, and 
therefore of energy ; that when our hands are placed before 
a fire, the sensation we experience comes from molecules in 
active motion, and not from anything which directly enters 
the surface. Radiant solar heat is a molecular motion 
transmitted from the sun; while heat which we create, or 
more properly evoke, at will, is the product of transmuted 
energy. If energy be expressed in. the form of visible 



64 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

motion, and this motion be suddenly arrested, the energy 
is not lost ; it is transmuted, partly into heat, still repre- 
senting the actual energy, and partly into potential energy, 
that portion which is stored away for subsequent use or de- 
velopment. If a piece of ice be entirely melted, the apparent 
temperature of the water will remain precisely the same as 
that of the ice before liquefaction ; and a like thing hap- 
pens in vaporization — the steam will be no hotter than the 
water. What has become of the sensible heat in these pro- 
cesses ? Is it lost ? Not at all. It is very vaguely said to 
have become latent. In other words, it is no longer sensi- 
ble to the thermometer; and it would appear, therefore, not 
to exist as heat, but to have assumed some other shape; 
perhaps, merely that of a requisite to overcome the form of 
energy represented by the tendency to molecular aggrega- 
tion. It may be said, however, to be quite capable of re- 
appearance as heat, under proper conditions. Hence, the 
energy may be constantly changing in form, now it is 
visible motion; now heat; but the resident something — 
the tendency to action, the force, is always the same. 

If we get a clear conception of the atomic and mole- 
cular construction of matter, we shall not have much diffi- 
culty in understanding the modus of molecular motion 'as 
applied to the evolution of heat through transmutation of 
energy; but our present subject takes us beyond this ques- 
tion, and leads us at a later period to the consideration of 
energy in the animal system, with all its collateral bearings, 
and hence some study of the solar energy animating our 
planetary system is involved in the problem. Not only 
solar heat, but also solar light, are " forms or modes of mo- 
tion." These seem indefinite expressions, however. What 
does the motion affect, or what does it represent ? 



THE FORCES OF NATURE. 65 



The Physicist's Ether. 



The idea of some subtle medium pervading all space 
was an intuitive suggestion with the very earliest of philos- 
ophers; but it was not until comparatively modern times 
that the conception was given a tangible shape. At this 
period, all scientists are in pretty close accord upon the 
general question of the existence of a fine medium, called 
the "luminiferous ether," which pervades all space, and 
the atomic interstices of all matter. Beyond this general 
basis of agreement, however, there is no settlement of 
details. Is the ether continuous, or does it float atoms of 
something, by which the motion is propagated ? These are 
questions, not yet satisfactorily answered. 

It seems a most difficult thing to conceive of the existence 
of a continuous ether, however fine or attenuated. There 
are some considerations which appear to render its exist- 
ence impossible, while it cannot be said to explain many 
w T ell-established facts. If we are to believe that heat is but 
a form of transmitted motion, it seems easier to fill our 
ether with. atoms having an unrestricted play, in explana- 
tion of the well-known phenomena, notwithstanding the 
difficulties we have to reconcile in the conception, than 
to encounter the greater ones of a continuous medium. 
The wave theory of sound suggested the wave theory of 
light; and while this latter has fully explained many phe- 
nomena not so clearly explainable upon any other basis, as 
for instance those dimensions or measures of something 
connected with a ray of light, which are called light-waves 
or wave-lengths, yet it also raises obstacles requiring an 
imaginary constitution of the ether, most difficult to har- 
monize in its varied characteristics. We shall have more to 
say of the ether, a little further on. 



66 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

The Conservation of Energy, 

This is a subject which has pretty largely occupied the 
attention of physicists during the past decade or more, and 
some advances toward simplification and truth have, un- 
doubtedly, been made. A few years since, it was general 
to call electricity a fluid, as though it might be bought and 
sold by imperial measure. Magnetism was a force, also, 
illy understood, and considered distinct from, although 
possessing many points of resemblance to, electricity. Heat 
was an entity, and light an emanation from luminous 
bodies. Some of the natural forces are now conceded to 
be convertible, one into the other; while there are not a 
few scientists who believe that every variety of energy 
has its origin in a single essence, as also there are not a few 
of them who believe there exists but one primitive form of 
matter; and therefore, that one force and one matter repre- 
sent the inscrutable fiat out of which the Great Architect 
has constructed the cosmos. 

As to force in general, it is a lofty conception which 
endows a single essence with such admirable and diversified 
attributes; and it seems but a question of time and in- 
quiry as to when every form of energy shall be recognized 
as emanating from a single source; and that this latter is 
no more inherent ito planetary systems than is solar light 
and heat. 

Different States of Matter. 

In relation to matter, the principles of chemistry are 
teaching us that atomic arrangement is capable of render- 
ing two substances — identical so far as apparent elements 
go — as widely different in visible character and sensible 
properties as are, for instance, the ruby and a piece of 
magnetic oxide of iron ; or as are butyric acid and acetic 



THE FORCES OF NATURE. 67 

ether, which have an identical composition and the same 
vapor density. 

The whole domain of physical research teems with ex- 
amples of the convertibility of matter, as well as of energy. 
Steam is but water, plus the energy of heat; and ice but 
water, minus the energy of heat. Carbolic and salicylic 
acids are two very different substances, chemically, as well 
as apparently. Yet salicylic acid, by the aid of heat, is 
rapidly transformed into carbolic and carbonic acids. From 
this it would appear that salicylic acid is but carbolic acid 
and the elements of carbonic acid, minus the energy of 
heat, and plus the energy of chemical affinity. It seems 
plain, therefore, that the combination represented by car- 
bolic acid is a compound radical to other combinations, the 
best known of which is the salicylic acid, which latter 
exists naturally in many substances to be hereafter men- 
tioned. Here the energy determines the combination, a 
fact which has a very important bearing upon other 
branches of our inquiry. 

Concerning Oxygen. 

If we search the entire field of known agents, we shall 
find one element, as it is considered, which seems to be,-pre- 
eminently, the most diffused and universal of all others; 
entering more largely into the composition of animate and 
inanimate bodies, and apparently, more indispensable to the 
varied processes of life and matter than any other recogniz- 
able substance. It pervades all nature; forms about one 
half of all known material, and constituting one fifth part 
of our atmosphere, gives the latter a character through 
which, alone, man is enabled to exist. It is "the great 
supporter of combustion/' not only in the material world 
upon which we live, but in our own bodies. It is eminently 



68 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

a "vital" agent. In the form by which it is known to us, 
it is called oxygen. 

The chemist will here tell us, that oxygen is not the 
only body with which we are acquainted, capable of sup- 
porting combustion; that a jet of hydrogen, for example, 
will burn in an atmosphere of chlorine. In this fact there 
exists an apparent exception to a rule which in every prac- 
tical aspect may be said to be general ; and as involving 
some interesting considerations, the body chlorine becomes 
a subject for more extended investigation. But in any 
event, this property of chlorine is limited, and the general 
attributes mentioned as possessed by oxygen, are not im- 
paired thereby. 

A careful consideration of the body oxygen in its varied 
aspects cannot fail to impress us with the idea, that taken 
all in all, it is the most wonderful substance of which we 
have any knowledge. It stands not only as a condition- 
precedent of animal life upon our globe, but in intimate 
association with various manifestations of energy. If we 
allow the calorific or invisible rays of an electric lamp gath- 
ered to a focus, to fall upon a piece of charcoal suspended 
in vacuo, the latter becomes heated to the extent of reflect- 
ing the red ray, and the coal glows with a simple red heat. 
If however, we let the same focus of calorific rays fall upon 
a piece of charcoal suspended in oxygen gas, the coal is at 
once ignited and we have a brilliant display of white light. 

Let us reflect upon this matter for a moment. In the 
first place, the calorific focus thrown upon the carbon was 
only sufficient to excite in its atoms that degree of activity 
which gives evolution to the red ray of light; but when 
thrown upon it in presence of another agent the velocity of 
atomic movement was sufficiently great to give us the white 
ray — a union of all the others, and indicative of great veloc- 



THE FORCES OF NATURE. 69 

ity in the wave-swell. Of course, there can be no other 
conclusion than that the different results depend entirely 
upon the accompanying factor in the last experiment — the 
oxygen. The radiant heat is the same, and the body sub- 
jected to it, the same in both instances; and there can be 
no room for dispute as to the agency which produces the 
greater activity in the last case. But the chemist will now 
tell us, that we have only witnessed a simple example of 
combustion, whereby the carbon and oxygen have combined, 
chemically, with the evolution of heat and light and a dis- 
play of incandescent particles; and that all chemical union 
is attended with this result to a greater or less degree. 
This is but the bare statement of a fact and explains noth- 
ing; we must turn to the physicist, therefore, and get his 
idea of the principle involved in the experiments. He will 
tell us that the carbon in the last case, having been heated 
by the calorific focus to an extent sufficient to permit an 
interlocking between the atoms of both bodies, union took 
place with the development of "energy" of such power as 
to excite the increased motion necessary to the production 
of the white ray. 

But we wish to probe the matter more deeply if pos- 
sible; we are following a subject destined to yield re- 
markable results in the future. It is impossible to dis- 
sect the ideal thing called " energy," but can we localize 
it? Is this remarkable property shared by both bodies 
equally, or more particularly by one of them ? Let us try 
other experiments. Suppose we place the piece of carbon 
in a bell filled with chlorine gas, and project the heat-focus 
upon it. We shall have no such exhibition as in the case 
of the oxygen. Indeed, chlorine and carbon only unite, 
indirectly. Suppose then, we substitute hydrogen for the 
oxygen. Still we have no such result. Union between car- 



70 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

bon and hydrogen is usually accomplished by the decom- 
position of complex bodies, and there are but few instances 
in which direct union takes place, although the hydro-car- 
bons are multitudinous in number. 

Let us take a glance at one of these compounds — me- 
thyl hydride (CH 4 ). This gas is evolved silently through 
thed ecomposition of. other bodies, but when mixed with 
oxygen or even atmospheric air, a violent explosive mixture 
is formed, from which many deaths have resulted in coal 
mines. Let us take away the carbon of the above named 
gas, and put the hydrogen with oxygen in the proportions 
to form water. The application of a spark will evoke an 
"energic" manifestation of light and heat which imme- 
diately informs us, that we are dealing with an agent whose 
voice we have heard before. If we wish to get some idea of 
the nature of this "energy," let us conduct the gases to a 
common jet, and light them at their emergence. The in- 
tense heat of the oxy-hydrogen blow-pipe will announce 
the energy bound up in these invisible bodies. 

Not to enter into too great detail in a work like this, it 
may be said that even to the most inexperienced, who are 
satisfied with the indefiniteness of such a term as combus- 
tion, it must appear that oxygen is a body possessed of very 
singular properties ; while to him who is accustomed to the 
observation of nature's processes as witnessed in the labor- 
atory, there will be suggested many illustrations of the fact 
that it stands alone in peculiar features; and further that 
its presence and action represent a maximum of energy pos- 
sessed by no other body. This latter statement will be ob- 
jected to by some as involving an idea opposed to general 
theories ; but the author believes that careful investigation 
will sustain it 



THE FORCES OF KATURE. 71 

Nature of the Ether. 

Whether force is inherent to matter, or is a transmitted 
property, we have as little idea, as before said, as we have 
of the innate nature of force itself. Beautiful as are the 
theories of light and heat as resting upon the conception of 
the ether, it would seem impossible to admit that their 
correctness is even an approximately demonstrated truth. 
There are a number of facts which render the various fea- 
tures of these theories very difficult of reconciliation. Some 
of these, as the author thinks, grow out of certain consid- 
erations connected with phenomena attending the polariza- 
tion of light; others with the ether itself. If, for instance, 
the ether possesses an elasticity sufficient to project a wave 
of light at the velocity of nearly 200,000 miles per second, 
it is susceptible of mathematical showing that the density 
of the ether must be vastly greater than that of common 
air, which we know not to be the case. That it has, how- 
ever, some substantial attributes, and is not the very attenu- 
ated medium claimed, must be conceded, if we are to give 
credence to those astronomers, who declare that the orbits 
of comets and other cosmic bodies are becoming more and 
more contracted as the result, not alone of gravitation, but 
of friction. 

When a spark from an electrical machine or a flash of 
lightning passes through the air, we witness a vivid white 
light. The popular mind associates with these phenomena 
the passage of a substantial body over the field of action. 
Our modern science has taught us that this is a delusion; 
and that what we really see is the white light produced by 
intensely heated particles of something ordinarily invisible 
to us. What is this something? 

Under the lights of our present knowledge, w r e have no 



72 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

right to say that the ether is but a passive agent of con- 
duction, and without positive. properties of its own. In- 
deed, from a close study of all these intricate processes of 
nature, one is tempted to believe that, in creating a myste- 
rious thing called "force," as the origin of all motion, and 
another thing called the " ether," as its simple agent of 
transmission, we have not at all reached the bottom of the 
matter. In every earnest and unenthusiastic investigation, 
there appears the shadow of an unknown thing flitting 
through these processes; indefinable, to be sure, but as 
plainly visible to a close observer as the little markings of 
the light-wave. In the earlier years of the human race, a 
shadow upon the moon announced the sickness of the latter 
body, which the beating of a tom-tom was sure to remove. 
As time rolled on, however, the course of the malady defi- 
nitely settled two things : first, the revolution of the heav- 
enly bodies; and second, the rotundity of the earth. The 
future centuries may catch and fix the indefinite shadow 
spoken of, if the substance itself lie not too far beyond the 
line bounding our finite understanding. 

The Source of Energy, 

If the positions which the author proposes taking in an- 
other part of this volume, upon the question of energy in 
its relations to the animal system, have any strength, a few 
moments of time will not be lost in briefly touching upon 
the source of energy within our own planetary system. 

The sun is supposed to be the original entity from 
whence proceeds the heat-energy which animates and keeps 
in motion our system. K"o theory of how this heat energy 
is produced has as yet received universal acceptance. The 
old belief that the sun was a body in actual combustion has 
been abandoned chiefly because the evidence is now con- 



THE FORCES OF NATURE. 73 

elusive, that it burns as brilliantly to-day as it did millions 
of years ago, having suffered no diminution of action, as 
must have been the case were a process of simple combus- 
tion involved. 

The prevailing opinion refers the sun's heat to a trans- 
mutation of visible motion, brought about by the impact of 
condensation while in the nebulous state, whereby the 
actual energy of motion was converted into heat, etc. This 
theory, while perhaps the most plausible we have, is still 
unsatisfactory. The demonstrable sameness of surround- 
ing systems, negatives any other idea than that the entire 
universe has been constructed upon the most precise and 
definite plan, nothing whatever having been left to the 
peril of chance or accident. In such an inquiry, too, the 
mind naturally goes back to the source of the original 
energy, which distributed the parent stock to the solar sys- 
tems; and this inquiry extends itself, with equal force to 
those erratic bodies of cosmic matter whose continual fall- 
ing into the sun augments the solar heat. Energy from 
some source is original, and must of necessity have ema- 
nated from some centre of force ; the primitive supply was 
precise in quantum or amount, and from the beginning of 
all things nothing has been actually gained, nor lost; 
though it is claimed that the balance of the various ener- 
gies is being gradually disturbed. 

If the sun derived its energy from another point, our 
inquiry must at once go back to that point. We cannot 
reason in a circle ; nor in explanation of cosmical phe- 
nomena, refer force to force, for thus we only leave the 
question where it was. 

As it would appear that different forms of energy but 
represent different states or conditions of an unknown 
something, the supposition does not present itself as an 



74 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

impossibility, that there exists a great centre of cosmic 
energy, forming the pivot of the universe, from which the 
solar bodies receive, and then transmit it, as distributing 
points in the forms of light, heat, and electricity (?) to their 
respective systems. This maybe considered an extravagant 
speculation ; but it seems not unreasonable to suppose that 
the centre around which all systems must certainly revolve, 
has an attraction proportionately great, at least, for its 
systems, as the solar bodies have for their own satellites ; 
and that it imparts the energies of light and heat to the 
former, as our sun imparts them to his company of depend- 
ents. In looking from our planet into space, we do not see, 
to be sure, any blazing mass which to the common mind 
represents the sun of suns; but if it were possible to stand 
upon our own sun, ninety-six million miles distant, and 
sweep the horizon, a different view might be presented. 

These are questions, however, which, while of absorbing 
interest to the general philosopher, can never be definitely 
settled by him; and as it seems, there is presented no alter- 
native other than to remit them with all their yearning 
outgrowths, to the profound depths of the Quien Sabe ! 



CHAPTER X. 

Oxygen and Electricity. 

When treating of the principle denominated ozone, in 
another portion of this volume, the author stated this body 
to be, in the general opinion, simple oxygen in an allotropic 
condition. The word allotropic only means a change, and 
while convenient in some respects, conveys no definite idea 
of the precise nature of the change to which it refers. 

Whether or not the allotropic condition consists in a 
molecular condensation, and a consequent multiplication of 
atoms in each molecule; or whether it represents a modified 
arrangement of the atoms themselves, need not here be 
inquired into. It is sufficient for present purposes to know 
that this condition as pertaining to a number of bodies, if 
not universal to all, is generally conceded. Carbon presents 
us three well-known modifications, as illustrated by the 
common lampblack, the plumbago or graphite, and the 
diamond. Phosphorus presents the red and vitreous states, 
the former permitting it to be handled, and even carried 
about the person without the danger of ignition ; the latter 
going off in a blaze under the temperature of 140° or less. 
Dr. Draper, of New York, has shown that chlorine exists 
in an active and a passive state ; in the first of which, all 
its well-known properties as a bleacher, disinfectant and 
deodorizer are manifested; while in the second, even its 
most energetic properties are nullified. Sulphur is another 
example of a body susceptible of allotropic or changed 
forms; and as a summary it maybe said, that there is a 



76 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

strong probability that all known elements are endowed to 
a greater or less degree, with the property of existing under 
two or more forms. 

Oxygen, as being concerned in the combustive process, 
has a close relationship with the energic manifestations of 
light and heat. It has interesting points of contact, like- 
wise, with the electric energy, which, as it displays itself to 
us, is but a transmutation of other forms. Heat is con- 
vertible into electricity, and the latter into the former. A 
bolt of lightning may fire a house; and striking on a sandy 
surface, will often vitrify a stone lying sufficiently near the 
point of impact, covering it with a coating of glass as per- 
fect as any made by artificial process. The silent spark of 
electricity passed through pure oxygen, condenses the latter 
and forms ozone. The application of heat, will then destroy 
the ozone and expand the oxygen ; and this process of con- 
version and reconversion may be carried on with the same 
oxygen, again and again. 

Oxygen is closely allied with the chemical production 
of electricity, and also has remarkable relationships w r ith 
light, possessing the smallest refractive powers of all known 
substances. It, also, has decided, if weak, magnetic prop- 
erties. 

These facts are rehearsed in order to illustrate the 
varied relationships of oxygen in the economy of nature. 
As a body concerned in the changes occurring under the 
denomination of the " combustive" process, it is a substance 
of much interest, though the process itself seems to consist 
simply in recombination, whereby all the substantial factors 
originally involved are susceptible of being accounted for. 
As a body, however, through whose direct agency many of 
the manifestations of actual energy are evolved, to a greater 
extent than by any known substance possessing even the 



OXYGEX AND ELECTRICITY. 77 

tangible character of this gas, it is full of suggestive possi- 
bilities. Potent as is its agency in the purely physical 
operations of nature, it becomes a still greater power in the 
operations of animal life ; and in this connection the author 
must refer to it in subsequent pages. 
4* 



CHAPTER XL 

The Volcakic Pile. 

The preceding remarks upon the agencies involved in 
the production of an earthquake, would be incomplete 
without a few words, at least, upon the subject of volcanoes, 
with which the popular mind has been led to associate all of 
the phenomena of the former. The real fact is, that earth- 
quakes may occur quite independently of any connection 
with volcanoes. The latter exist, to be sure, in the elevated 
chains of mountains, behind which the former are constant; 
and when in eruption, or as preliminary to an eruption, 
earthquakes are manifested in all degrees of violence. But 
the earthquakes of South America often occur in regions 
entirely separated from volcanoes by strips of entirely un- 
affected country; the action of the former is distinctly 
marked out and limited, and it is impossible to regard 
them as an exclusive consequence of volcanoes. 

Whether or not the interior molten condition of the 
globe, assumed by scientists, exists as a matter of fact, need 
not now be discussed ; though the writer states frankly, 
that he cannot believe it necessary to explain volcanic 
eruptions upon that ground. That the earth is an enor- 
mous magnet has long been maintained. Gilbert, surgeon 
to Queen Elizabeth, in his work De Magnete, declares that 
the whole globe is held together by the electric force*— 
rather remarkable language for the early part of the six- 

* Globus telluris per se electrice congregatur et cohseret. Quoted by Hum- 
boldt in the ;i Cosmos." 



THE VOLCAKIC PILE. 79 

teenth century. We can fully appreciate the truth of this 
assertion in our own day, when the wondrous feats of the 
telephone are about being accomplished over wires, without 
batteries to generate currents ; but acting alone by the 
natural currents. of the earth. 

If the boiling, seething mass of internal fire really exist, 
the production of electricity as a representative of trans- 
muted energy, is easily accounted for. But it requires no 
stretch of the imagination to suppose a naturally existent 
store of this form of energy, constantly disturbed and 
perhaps augmented by the varying conditions of solar heat, 
and friction produced by the earth's rotation upon its own 
axis, as well as by its revolution around the sun. That 
varying electrical states are largely produced by the sun, is 
now well proven in connection with observations, showing 
the greatest magnetic disturbances of the earth, to occur 
during the maximum of the sun-spots, observed about 
every eleven years; when sanitary conditions are likewise 
affected. Hence, as the author believes to be the case, it 
would be entirely possible for volcanoes with their accom- 
panying eruptions, to exist without any permanently 
molten condition of the interior of the globe, but as a 
pure and direct consequence of electrical action. 

In reiterating, then, the assertion that the immediate 
cause of an earthquake, that " spasmodic convulsion of the 
sickened earth/' is not a simple vibration produced by con- 
cussion at a distant point, nor the wave motion of an 
internal fluidity, but the actual transmission of energy, 
closely related to, if not identical in form with electricity, 
the author desires to be construed under the light of the 
preceding reflections and arguments. This much, he can 
assert without hesitation: that in the field of his recent 
observations, where earthquakes from some cause are fre- 



80 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

quent and destructive, certain accompaniments are invari- 
ably to be noted — one of these being the elimination into 
the atmosphere of a substance responding to all of the tests 
for ozone; another being a highly electrical condition of 
those localities, as manifested in the methods heretofore 
described. These are the potent facts, which it has been 
the chief purpose of the author to demonstrate. The 
application to the strict sphere of the pathologist, if they 
really possess any, remains to be made. 



PART III. 

MEDICAL ASPECTS OF THE PACIFIC COAST OF SOUTH 

AMERICA. 



CHAPTER I. 

General Considerations. 

To attempt a full description of the sanitary peculiari- 
ties of a belt of country, passing through a range of from 
40 to 50 degrees of latitude, and extending from the equa- 
tor to the lower part of the south temperate zone; and 
affected as it is. in different localities, by complicated ques- 
tions of altitude, wind exposure, rainfall, etc., etc., as may 
easily be seen, would require a volume of greatly larger 
proportions than the present. The author's immediate 
object is, simply, to note the salient points connecting- 
physical features and circumstances with prevalent health 
states or types, with the view of discovering whether or not, 
it be possible to deduce therefrom, any laws and principles 
tending to throw light upon the obscure questions of gen- 
eral disease causation. 

Two propositions may here be announced: first, that 
throughout the wholly rainless districts of the above men- 
tioned coast, and with the limitation previously mentioned, 
in those where the earthquake energy is most strongly and 
constantly developed, the existence of a large number of 
the infectious diseases, which devastate other parts of the 



82 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

world, is unknown; and second, that in such portions of it 
alone as possess a rainfall* during a limited part of the year, 
are any of these diseases to be observed ; and then, perhaps 
as a rule, after the winter earthquake season has passed. 

If these propositions be susceptible of verification, the 
facts involved cannot be accidental ; but, of necessity, must 
be underlaid by some fixed condition or conditions oper- 
ating with the constancy of a specific law. What are these 
conditions ? If we could define them with the certainty of 
a settled problem in mathematics or in physics, we should 
be in a position enabling us to comprehend more intelli- 
gently many of the obscure processes of animal life ; and as 
an ideal conception, to stand upon the shores of our un- 
known sea, and bid the waves advance no further than a 
given point. 

The question is one vast in proportions as well as in 
consequences ; but we may narrow it down and prune it to 
the root in order to grasp its logical characters, and follow 
it to the last conclusion. 

The explanation, then, of the exemption spoken of, can 
only lie within the two circumstances of geographical inac- 
cessibility to general contagious intercourse with other 
parts of the world, and the local facts of physical construc- 
tion or existence belonging to the region under consider- 
ation. Now, it cannot come within the first of these, be- 
cause steamers ply up and down the coast from all parts of 
the world, with none of the restrictions of a comprehensive 
quarantine to bar off the advance of infection. The ports 
upon the Chilean coast are but from eight to twelve days 
from the yellow fever and cholera foci of Brazil and other 
Atlantic ports; while the city of Guayaquil is but four 

*The author here includes under the word rainfall, those heavy mists. 
(garuas) which regularly occur on certain parts of the coast; as to all practical 
purposes, they are equivalent to light rains. 



GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 83 

days', Payta but five days', and Callao but seven days' steam- 
ing from the Isthmus of Panama, that great international 
highway between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Fur- 
ther than this, one of the infectious diseases — variola — 
has been introduced into certain parts of this region, and 
has a curious and perhaps an instructive history, hereafter to 
be mentioned ; while it is claimed that others have also been 
introduced. Hence the ground of geographic isolation is 
not tenable in explanation of the facts of exemption ; and 
we are driven to the remaining alternative of pure physical 
circumstance. 

Having arrived at this point, we are at once confronted 
with the difficulties of the situation. What physical in- 
fluences exist capable of averting from the inhabitants 
of this region a class of diseases furnishing so wide an out- 
let to human life in other parts of the world? What are 
the salient facts as illustrated in the foregoing description 
of the physical peculiarities of the southwest coast? They 
are two — first, varying degrees of atmospheric aridity, and 
second, a highly electric condition giving rise to frequent 
and violent disturbances of the earth and air. 

Let us prune the question still further. If the infec- 
tious diseases, as is now claimed, originate from the direct 
influence of atmospheric germs, is not the exemption ex- 
plicable upon the simple fact of an atmospheric aridity un- 
favorable to germ life and development: and is not this 
fact itself a strong proof of the correctness of the "germ 
theory " ? 

The experiments of Pasteur with hermetically-sealed 
flasks containing organic matters, upon the Mer de Glace ; 
and of Tyndall in the air of the Jura mountains, have defi- 
nitely settled a fact, again to be alluded to in these pages, 
viz : that living organisms not only spring from a typical 



84 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

parent, but that the precise conditions under which each 
form is capable of existence are marked with the most rigid 
exactness. The remarks hereafter to be made in this vol- 
ume., concerning the existence of life under certain speci- 
fied conditions are also applicable to the point now being 
considered. The various forms of animal and vegetable 
life on the southwest coast have an interesting relationship 
to that wonderful mountain-chain, which, in the language 
of Coleridge, may be poetically described as 

'•A living ambassador from earth to heaven." 

But, in special reference to the organic forms involved 
in our present question, it may be stated, that at all ordinary 
levels they exist in the atmosphere of the region under con- 
sideration, whatever may be its actual rainfall; for it must 
be remembered that mountain streams of large size in past 
ages, as some of them still are, have formed immense val- 
leys, through which water finds its way, keeping the air of 
the vicinity charged to a certain degree, by constant evapora- 
tion. Further than this, the most of the large cities are 
either directly upon the sea coast, or in its immediate 
vicinity, where no lack of humidity exists; while in some 
parts, notably in Callao and Lima in Peru, the dews are so 
heavy as to resemble light rains. In some of these places, 
dampness is proverbial, and much care is often requisite to 
preserve the most ordinary articles from mildew. 

In all these regions there exist special endemic diseases, 
as the chaJbalongo, or "typhoid fever of Chile"; and the 
undisguised malarial or periodic fevers of Lima and vicinity. 
More forcible still, however, is the example of localities hav- 
ing a regular rainfall, equally exempt from many of the 
infectious diseases. Of these there may be specially men- 
tioned the cities of Guayaquil and Quito in Ecuador, where 
epidemics (except as hereafter to be mentioned) do not 



GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 85 

prevail; but where the rains are copious, vegetation rank, 
and the electric energy intense. As conclusive upon the 
point, the writer in his own experiments never failed to 
observe varieties of bacterial life from exposure of organic 
solutions in the Chilean atmosphere, as high as a level of 
3,000 feet above the sea. 

From these considerations we are bound to conclude, that 
the exemption mentioned cannot rest upon any anhydrous 
condition of atmosphere forbidding the existence of aerial 
germ-life ; as also that the circumstance lends no support 
to the hypothesis, which constitutes bacteria the specific 
causes of the infectious diseases. 



CHAPTEE II. 

Sakitary View of Principal Cities. 

As preliminary to subsequent remarks upon the general 
topic embraced under this portion of the present volume, 
let us take a rapid survey of the prominent sanitary pecu- 
liarities of those portions of the south Pacific coast, afford- 
ing the most striking contrasts, as considered from the 
standpoint of our subject. 

Ecuador. 

The city of Guayaquil is situated upon the river Guayas, 
and lies but a short distance below the equator. The rainy 
seasons are regular, and the rainfall copious. The valley 
upon either side of the river consists of a rich alluvium 
and supports a handsome, tropical vegetation. The whole 
region teems with insect and parasitic life ; and during the 
rainy season, violent local fevers and dysenteries of low 
types, are prevalent. With the exception of variola, how- 
ever, it is to be doubted that the class of infectious diseases 
to be considered in these pages, have ever visited Guayaquil. 
It is claimed that contagious yellow fever has scourged the 
city: and while we might expect, as the locality falls 
directly within the limits of the natural home of that dis- 
ease, that this would be the case, the evidence is not entirely 
conclusive, that the disease there called yellow fever, is other 
than a violent, form of bilious remittent fever. 

Passing, however, to a mountain elevation we come to 
Quito, nearly upon the equator, and almost 10,000 feet 



SANITARY VIEW OF PRINCIPAL CITIES. 87 

above the sea, and also possessed of great medical interest. 
Here the rain is copious during the proper seasons, and 
vegetation perennial. The city has a population of 40,000 
people, living in the most primitive style of dirt, sloth and 
exposure; and yet enjoys a salubrity which might excite 
the envy of the best regulated capitals of the world. In 
relation to this point, the following quotations may be 
made from a book * by the Hon. Frederick Hassaurek, for- 
merly U. S. Minister to Ecuador, the accuracy of whose 
observations is only equaled by the delightful style in 
which they are recorded. Says Mr. H. : 

"If it were not for the excellence of its climate, which 
is never hot and never cold, the prevailing filthiness would 
make Quito a yery sickly place. But as it is, Quito with 
its neighborhood for miles around, may be said to be one of 
the healthiest localities on the globe. Consumptions and 
pulmonary diseases are scarcely ever heard of. The fevers 
peculiar to tropical countries are unknown. Those who 
get them on the coast will go to Quito and the interior to 
get rid of them. Dysenteries are uncommon. Among the 
rabble, it is true, cases of tubercular elephantiasis or leprosy, 
as well as blindness and deafness, will be noted ; but there 
is no doubt that they are brought on by irregular habits 
and the indescribable filthiness in which these people are 
brought up and live. ... To judge from the great number 
of people of high age I have met with in all ranks and 
stations, the climate may be said to be favorable to long 
life. . . . Cases of sunstroke are never heard of," etc. etc. 
And as touching a point to be again mentioned in these 
pages, the following is further quoted from the same book : 
"Not only is Quito a very healthy place, but it is without 
insects, except those against which cleanliness is a safe 

* "Four Years Among Spanish Americans.'' 



88 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

preventive, such as fleas and lice. . . . For leagues around 
Quito no snake is to be found. Mosquitos are hardly 
known; scorpions and tarantulas have never been heard of. 
Flies even are very rare, and do not molest at all. There 
are mice, but no rats, nor are there bats or lizards, or even 
bugs or beetles in the grass or on trees." 

To this statement it must be added that the city enjoy- 
ing such rare immunities, lies at the base of Mount 
Pichincha, and within calling distance of Chimborazo, 
Cotopaxi, Sangai, Tunguragua, and more than a dozen 
others of the volcanic kings of the Andes, and where the 
purely volcanic earthquakes, if the expression may be used, 
are largely represented, as well as genuine storms of thunder 
and lightning. 

In relation to the absence of venomous reptilian life, as 
stated by Mr. H., it may be further added, that it is quite 
characteristic of the whole south Pacific coast, that venom- 
ous reptiles and insects have no natural existence. What 
effect the peculiar conditions of a volcanic and earthquake 
region may have upon such forms of life need not now be 
inquired into. The circumstance will be referred to in 
another portion of this volume. 

Peru. 

Descending from this interesting locality to the sea 
coast w r e come to the little town of Payta, on the arid coast 
of Peru, in latitude 5° S.; and where, until the present 
season, rain has not fallen, it is said, for forty years. This 
is one of the healthiest spots on the face of the globe. 
Though the inhabitants are compelled to carry their drink- 
ing and cooking water a distance of several miles, and live 
in that flagrant violation of all sanitary rules, which. gen- 
erally characterizes, in varying degrees, the whole Spanish- 



SANITARY VIEW OF PRINCIPAL CITIES. 89 

American population, epidemic diseases of all kinds are 
entirely unknown ; while individual sickness among the 
unwashed residents, is so rare as to constitute quite an 
event. 

Payta is but a port for the interior, and for the com- 
monest necessaries of life, is dependent upon the back 
country, and the ships which visit it regularly. The soil 
is composed entirely of sand; and vegetation in any natural 
form does not exist, if we except the small forms of vege- 
table life which have an ephemeral existence after a phe- 
nomenal rain. An amusing incident grew out of this 
circumstance, which the Paytaguinos appreciate as highly 
as the traveler, who visits them. Several of the inhabitants 
having died, from time to time, of old age, and violence, it 
was thought necessary to have a graveyard ; and accord- 
ingly a small piece of ground was fenced in with close- 
boards. To relieve the natural lack of verdure, an artist 
was employed to paint trees and shrubbery on the fence, 
which he did with much skill and greatly to the admira- 
tion of the people. An unforeseen difficulty, however, soon 
presented itself. The entire mule population of the vicin- 
ity made a rush for the shrubbery, and inflicted great 
damage by constantly gnawing the fence. Their forays 
were prevented, at length, by painting the foliage of a blue 
color; and the board fence and blue trees are the first 
objects the traveler now witnesses, upon approaching Payta 
from the sea, 

Proceeding south along the coast, we reach Callao and 
Lima, in about 12° south latitude, the latter capital being 
the ancient "city of the kings." Here the malarial influ- 
ence (the specific remedy for whose effects on the human 
system, in shape of the famed Peruvian bark, is found in- 
digenous to a not very remote locality) exists in consider- 



90 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

able intensity, and periodic types mark nearly all diseases 
of that particular region. As the author will have occasion 
to refer more than once in these pages to a specific influ- 
ence endemic to Peru, the circumstances of its development 
may be appropriately related at this point. 

The Verruga Fever. 

When the Oroya railroad was being built — a road pro- 
jected to connect the Pacific coast with the head-waters of 
the Amazon river — the workmen, upon breaking ground 
on a certain spot nearly 6,000 feet above the sea, were pros- 
trated with a disease which received the name of " Verruga 
fever" (la fiebre cle Verrugas), from its accompanying erup- 
tion resembling a wart. The precise nature of this malady 
is entirely unknown. Though designated as a fever, the 
author has been told that the disease often appeared with- 
out fever, being ushered in with violent aching of the 
joints, which was soon followed by the eruption. This 
latter consisted of a warty tubercle, varying in size from a 
pea to almost that of a hen's egg. The latter was hemor- 
rhagic in character, and rapidly reduced the patient's 
strength through loss of blood.- It has been generally 
claimed that the disease was peculiar to the spot before 
mentioned, and a bridge constructed over a chasm at that 
point is called the " Verruga bridge." Dr. Edwin R. Heath, 
for some years in charge of the hospital at Chileta, while 
the Pacasmayo road was being built, and a gentleman of 
much learning and observation, maintains that other local- 
ities in Peru produce the disease, and that it was known 
during the Spanish conquest. 

However this may be, its existence is certainly very cir- 
cumscribed. Only those immediately exposed to emana- 
tions from the upturned ground were affected by it. Qui- 



SANITARY VIEW OF PRINCIPAL CITIES. 91 

nine was powerless to prevent or cure, and stimulants and 
tonics were exclusively relied upon to combat it. What mys- 
terious and pestiferous agency lay buried here from the ages 
when the Andes rose from the sea, ready to spring upon the 
advances of civilization, and dispute those lofty mountain 
passes even with the iron-horse, more invulnerable than 
his wooden predecessor before the walls of ancient Troy ? 
The march of time may solve a question to which the sci- 
ence of our day gives no response. The author has some 
notes concerning the physical features of the spot, made by 
himself when passing over it about one year since, the 
statement of which, though shedding no positive light upon 
the subject, may be of interest in a future volume. 

At this point the remark may be made that, as we pro- 
gress southward from Peru, the malarial influence steadily 
diminishes, until long before the Chilean coast is reached, 
it is lost entirely. 

Bolivia. 

The interior of Bolivia is a region of marvelous interest, 
though from the circumstance of its inaccessibility, little 
concerning it is generally known. There are no seaports 
of any consequence, and its capital, until recently, was 
reached by mule travel over mountain and desert. The 
remarkable electrical conditions of the interior mountain 
regions are the subjects of stories which might completely 
dwarf those of Baron Munchausen were it not that some 
basis for them is positively known to exist. 

All reports of the interior cities of Bolivia and their 
cloud-dwelling populations represent them as remarkably 
healthy, notwithstanding their habits of personal and gen- 
eral filth and insalubrity. No epidemics are known to 
exist, and were it not for the prevailing habit of billing 
each other in revolutions, it is believed by those competent 



92 PHYSICS OP THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

to judge that no region of the known world could present 
such tables of health and longevity. Cuzco, the ancient 
capital of the Incas, and the site of the beautiful Temple 
of the Sun is nearly 12,000 feet above the level of the sea. 

Chile. 

The author is able to give a much more extended 
account of the sanitary conditions of this country, than of 
those previously mentioned, because of a lengthened resi- 
dence in that republic, for a period of nearly four years. 
The limits prescribed for this little book, however, will 
permit such details only, as may best serve to point and 
illustrate its main purpose. 

The cities of Valparaiso and Santiago, situated near the 
33d parallel of south latitude, the former upon the sea 
coast, and the latter in the interior, are the largest cities of 
Chile. Valparaiso contains about 110,000 inhabitants, and 
Santiago with its suburbs, about 200,000. There is no 
other city in the republic of over 30,000 people. 

The city of Valparaiso (the vale of Paradise) is built at 
the foot of an amphitheatrical chain of coast hills, upon a 
strip of land so narrow that a large portion of the new city 
is constructed upon the hillsides and within the ravines 
(quebradas). The streets are narrow, and the population 
exceedingly crowded. There being no stream of pure water 
accessible to the city, this great necessity is chiefly supplied 
by reservoirs filled during the rainy season. The quantity 
of the supply is therefore very precarious ; always so limited 
as to make it a sort of treasure to be husbanded with care; 
and at times, if indeed this be not the rule, the quality is 
so bad as to render it quite unfit for drinking purposes. 
Though there exists an attempt at a sewer system, it is an 
open question whether or not the sewers are not more per- 



SAXITARY YIEW OF PRINCIPAL CITIES. 93 

nicious than healthful. During the summer season, the 
scarcity of water renders the proper flushing of closets 
and sewers, alike impossible. Hence, accumulations occur 
giving origin to the gases of putrefaction, which are freely 
emitted in dwellings, as well as in streets. When the 
winter rains come, a general washing out occurs; and if, as 
occasionally happens, the rains are very heavy and pro- 
longed, the violent rush of water down the steep hillsides 
and quebradas, tear open the sewers, and fill the air with 
their reeking odors. Add to these insalubrious conditions, 
a laboring population dwelling in huts, and living in filth, 
and it can easily be seen, that Valparaiso should be a city 
scourged with epidemics, and presenting a mortality rate 
equal to the most unfavored spots in the world. 

And yet it is not so. The climate of Valparaiso is quite 
delightful. From its latitude and position at sea level, 
presumably it should possess a very elevated temperature. 
Two circumstances prevent this, however; first, because of 
the cold ocean-current of Humboldt, which sweeps up from 
the Antarctic seas, and bathes a great portion of the south 
Pacific coast; and second, because of the fresh sea-breeze 
regularly blowing over the city. Now to this latter agency 
may largely be attributed whatever healthfulness the city 
may possess, as through its means not only are the noxious 
gases of the place blown away, but a plentiful supply of 
the ozone principle is furnished, to disinfect them. 

So far as the central streets and external appearances 
are concerned, Valparaiso is kept scrupulously clean ; but 
through lack of water, as before mentioned, it is impossible 
to institute safe hygienic principles and laws among a large 
population, crowded into a space between the sea and coast 
hills, probably not averaging a quarter of a mile in width. 
And yet with all these disadvantageous surroundings and 



94 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

accompaniments, epidemic diseases, with the exception of 
small-pox, and erysipelas, are unknown in Valparaiso. It 
may here be added, that during the winter months, earth- 
quakes of violent character afflict the city. 

Santiago, the capital of Chile, is situated upon a broad 
and fertile plain, at the base of, or within full view of the 
great snow summit of the Andes. It lies at a level of 550 
metres, or 1,787 feet above the sea. Unlike its seaport, 
Valparaiso, it has ample space for its population, and en- 
joys a plentiful supply of delightfully pure water, brought 
directly from the adjoining mountains. It has a fine 
climate — the thermometer seldom or never falling below 
40° of Fahrenheit's scale; nor rising above 68°. Under 
proper sanitary regulations, it should be one of the health- 
iest cities in South America. The drainage of the city is 
effected by an innumerable network of little canals (ace- 
quias) walled at the bottoms and sides with brick; and 
through which flow streams of running water. These 
canals permeate the whole city, running under houses, and 
through the yards ; and receive every describable variety of 
refuse belonging to a population of 200,000 people. Their 
tops, however, being open in many places, such gases and 
the living organisms, which they might naturally contain, 
have full access to the dwellings. Were it not that the 
descent of the canals is naturally great, owing to the in- 
clination of the city from east to west, the consequences 
resulting from open conduits of filth and putrefaction would 
be of a most serious character. 

In the matter of dwellings, there are few houses in San- 
tiago, constructed upon approved principles of hygiene. 
They are largely built of adobes (sun-dried brick), and hav- 
ing no foundations, the walls of the lower stories are pretty 
constantly damp and even wet during the winter season. 



SANITARY VIEW OF PRINCIPAL CITIES. 95 

As a rule they are badly ventilated; and being built upon 
the plan of a hollow square, with intervening courtyards 
(patios), the sun seldom penetrates the living rooms. The 
altos of houses containing a second story, are not open to 
these objections. The poorer population live in all sorts of 
huts and holes, loaded with filth and foul air; while not a 
few sleep under the broad canopy of heaven, with the never 
absent poncho as the only covering. During the heat of 
the summer months, so soon as the sun goes down, a cur- 
rent of cold air begins to flow from the adjacent ice-fields 
of the mountains into the superheated valleys below, mak- 
ing so great a reduction of temperature, that one must 
sleep under blankets the whole year through. Hence the 
exposed peasantry are subjected to the full effects of these 
alternations of temperature. During the wet, winter 
months, the terrifying earthquakes are frequent and regular 
phenomena; and occurring usually during the night, the 
whole population, rich and poor, are liable to exposure to 
the inclemencies of the weather. 

These observations pertain to nearly all of the cities and 
districts affected by earthquakes; and as might be sup- 
posed, the effects upon the health of the people are of the 
most decided character. But the class of diseases from 
which they suffer most largely are those naturally resulting 
from the influences herein set forth; hence, pneumonia 
(pulmonia), is not only a frequent, but from its asthenic 
character, a very fatal affection ; constantly heading the list 
of the ordinary mortality tables. This asthenic character 
pertains to all classes of disease; and is due, evidently, to 
the deranged innervation necessarily attending a residence, 
native or even prolonged, in regions of the world marked 
by the electrical conditions of violent earthquake districts ; 
and contributed to by an almost dead-level temperature 
throughout the year. 



CHAPTER III. 

Prevalent Diseases of Chile. 

This interesting country has few diseases which are 
entirely peculiar to it, though the remarkable physical con- 
ditions of this, as well as of other portions of the south 
Pacific coast, induce particular types which mark all classes 
of disease. The most usual affections are those of the 
respiratory organs, embracing nasal catarrh, pneumonia, 
bronchitis, pleurisy and phthisis; hepatitis; rheumatism; 
valvular diseases of the heart ; diarrhoeas; neuralgias; goi- 
tre, and affections of the eye. 

Prevalent Infectious Diseases. 

Chabalongo, or "Typhoid Fever of Chile?' — This is a pecu- 
liar fever, and seems exclusively endemic to Chile. It fre- 
quently becomes epidemic in the large cities, and though 
not communicable, it is evidently a disease of specific origin. 
What may be the nature of the causative principle is as 
undetermined, as is that which produces the malarial and 
typhoid fevers, or any of the affections classed by some 
authors under the name miasmatic-contagious. Special 
conditions of filth engender the disease, and its chief rav- 
ages are among the indigent and vicious classes of the pop- 
ulation ; though during epidemic visitations it attacks the 
better classes, in a mild form. Like the Verruga fever of 
Peru, it is essentially of a low type, though unattended 
with any characteristic eruption. Its most usual sequel is 



tREVALENT DISEASES OF CHILE. 97 

falling of the hair, from which result its name is derived. 
In "its worst forms, it has been regarded by the Chilean 
physicians as identical with the typhus of Ireland, as the 
latter has been described by Graves and Stokes. The w T riter 
was unable to form this opinion of it, from his own obser- 
vation, but considered it a pure locality disease. Quinine 
has no specific influence in arresting it. 

Erysipelas. — This disease becomes epidemic at intervals, 
and assumes a hemorrhagic and gangrenous form, being 
productive of great mortality, especially among puerperal 
women, in whom it is developed as a metroperitonitis. Its 
ravages are greatest in those with an impoverished or altered 
blood-state, and with depressed nervous energy. 

Dysentery. — This disease prevails largely during the 
summer and fall seasons, as a sporadic affection, chiefly 
among the poorer classes, who indulge in, and may be said 
almost to live upon watermelons {sandias). During certain 
seasons and periods, the disease becomes epidemic, as in 
other parts of the world. It has no peculiarities other than 
that of its early asthenic character. 

Hooping Cough. — This affection, undoubtedly prevails, 
at times, in both Santiago and Valparaiso, but its attacks 
are usually mild in character, and not often followed by 
serious sequelae. 

Influenza. — This affection has prevailed as an epidemic, 
at various times, upon the whole coast. Influenza does 
not depend for its spread over the world upon lines of travel 
or of human intercourse, but appears spontaneously in the 
most remote and inaccessible localities. Its origin at par- 
ticular seasons and periods, and in utter disregard of all 
health conditions, inevitably connect it with meteorological 
states, probably induced by magnetic influences of terres- 
trial or solar character. In the sense only, of its being 



98 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

epidemic or pandemic can it be considered an infectious 
disease. 

Syphilis. — The ravages of this disease and its sequelae 
are frightful, general ignorance and unrestricted intercourse 
among the lower classes permitting it to work its maximum 
of mischief. The field is a good one for the study of the 
malady in all its forms. 

Small-pox. — The physicians of Chile cannot tell when or 
how this pestiferous disease was introduced into the coun- 
try, further than to state their belief, that it was originally 
brought by vessel from the Atlantic coast, and at once found 
a congenial nidus in the filthy habits and abodes of the 
lower classes. However introduced, it seems never to be 
entirely absent; while at intervals ft assumes the epidemic 
form and rages with much violence, it being estimated that 
the mortality sometimes reaches as high as fifty per cent of 
the existing cases. It is confined in its attacks, however, 
to the cities, and to their slums of poverty and filth — a 
case seldom ever being heard of outside of that charmed 
circle. t Living in dirt and squalor, suffering from exposure 
to the wet, winter weather, and subjected to those peculiar 
influences of locality heretofore stated, which expend their 
force upon the nervous system, is it to be wondered at, that 
the disease assumes the confluent and hemorrhagic forms, 
and more than decimates the unfortunate victims ? 

But there is one very remarkable peculiarity about small- 
pox, which characterizes it, so far as the author could learn, 
wherever it prevails throughout the whole region of country 
now under consideration. The disease seems to have lost, 
in great measure, its identity, and to have merged itself 
into a local disease — local, that is to say, to the extensive 
tract subject to the physical states heretofore described. 
The most peculiar of these, aside from some general de- 



PREVALENT DISEASES OF CHILE. 99 

partures from the usual characteristics, relate to the in- 
efficacy of vaccination as a preventive, and the non-pro- 
tective power of one attack against another. It has been 
claimed, as an explanation of the first circumstance, that the 
vaccine virus in being brought through the tropics dete- 
riorates; but this can hardly be the proper one, as the 
utmost care has been taken to transport pure fresh lymph 
from the calf, in sealed tubes, kept during the voyage at a 
low temperature, and excluded from light. That the fault 
cannot be with the vaccine lymph is evidenced by the 
second circumstance mentioned. There can be no doubt 
that many persons have the disease three times, and the 
writer has seen those who claimed to have had four violent 
attacks. These features characterize the disease in Peru, 
where it also prevails, as well as in Chile and elsewhere. 
The disease, without doubt, was introduced to the Pacific 
coast as veritable small-pox, but some mysterious influence 
has stripped it of its most characteristic features. The 
author believes the malady, as it now exists, to be entirely 
susceptible of being "stamped out" from the whole region 
by proper and persistent effort; and during his residence 
upon the coast, took occasion to indicate the measures 
which he believed would be effective in this direction, in a 
published essay upon the subject, entitled : "Los Meclios Mas 
Aprobados para Prevenir la Viruela y Otras de las Epi- 
demias" 

It may be said that the list of infectious diseases prev- 
alent upon the southwest coast is complete with the fore- 
going statement. It has been claimed that others of the 
class have from time to time appeared, as will be mentioned 
presently. It is admitted by all observers, however, that 
ravaging epidemics afflicting other portions of the w r orld 
with such great mortality, are entirely unknown by like 



100 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

results in any portion of the extensive region under con- 
sideration, with the exception of small-pox heretofore men- 
tioned; while in those having no rainfall whatever, and 
as a consequence characterized by the electrical states of 
earthquake regions, such diseases have no existence ; a rule 
seeming to be, that the prevalence of the general class of 
acute infectious diseases is inversely to the electric energy of 
the locality. 

Infectious Diseases Claimed to have Prevailed. 

Scarlatina. — It has been claimed that epidemics of this 
disease have been experienced in Santiago and Valparaiso ; 
and also others of 

Measles. — If either has prevailed, it has no permanent 
abiding place ; but depends for sustenance upon reimporta- 
tion ; while the visitations are mild and short-lived. 

Relapsing Fever. — It has been stated that an epidemic of 
this peculiar disease visited the south Pacific coast in 1854, 
and spread from Peru to the northern parts of Chile. That 
the disease was the genuine relapsing fever, must be con- 
sidered a doubtful question. So far as can now be learned, 
the malady resembled the malarious fevers, which con- 
stantly prevail in Peru. Eelapsing fever is a singular dis- 
ease, and has that element of periodicity, which suggests 
some resemblance, so far as the parts of the system upon 
which the impress of the virus is made, at least, to the 
ordinary malarial affections. The periodical feature of the 
disease is not the only point of resemblance to those of 
malarial character; but the enlargement of the spleen, 
which constitutes the single pathological change in re- 
lapsing fever, gives it another point of contact with the 
former affections. 

As germane to our present subject, the fact may be here 



PREVALENT DISEASES OF CHILE. 101 

recalled that Obermeier, in 1868, announced the finding of 
specimens of spirillm in the blood of relapsing fever 
patients, which disappeared when the fever went off, and 
reappeared upon its return. This observation has been 
corroborated by others, but at best the fact has no more 
than a negative value, as w r ill be shown hereafter. 

Dengue. — This disease is reported to have prevailed in Peru 
as an epidemic in 1818, and again in 1852 ; upon both occa- 
sions as a precursor of yellow fever. The probabilities are 
that the visitation was an exaggerated type of malarious fever. 

Yelloio Fever and Cholera. — Both diseases are reported 
as having occurred in Peru, but never south of Callao. 
Both may have been transported by ship, but it is certain 
that no wide-spread epidemics have occurred even there ; 
and that they have rapidly faded out with the first cases. 
These regions are so little known, and reliable observation 
of disease so little cultivated, that it is not safe to place 
much dependence upon general reports concerning epidemic 
visitations. An American official at Callao, was reported 
as having died, some twelve months since, of yellow fever, 
while there was no other case in the country. His real 
disease was glycosuria. 

If it be admitted, however, that the above specified dis- 
eases of the acute infectious class have prevailed in certain 
localities upon the south Pacific coast, one fact must re- 
main unchallenged, viz : that with the single exception of 
variola, no one of them has been of extensive and wide- 
spread prevalence, nor persistent among the people — the 
few epidemics which may have occurred, requiring as the 
starting focus a fresh importation of the particular disease. 
So far as regards the exception, variola, as it prevails in the 
region named, has lost its identity, so to speak, and has 
become almost a disease sui generis. 



102 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

Non-Prevalent Infectious Diseases. 

Cholera and Yellow Fever. — No case of either of these 
diseases has ever been seen between Cape Horn, and Oallao, 
in Peru; and though both have been reported to have 
occurred at the latter place, yet there is certainly much 
doubt as to the genuine character of the visitations. 

Scarlet Fever. — The disease may have occurred in cer- 
tain localities, as reported; but it has no permanent 
abiding place in any part of the great belt under consider- 
ation. 

Typhus Fever. — Never known. 

Typhoid Fever. — The same. 

Relapsing Fever. — The same, under the previously men- 
tioned restriction. 

Diphtheria. — Entirely unknown. The author has never 
been reliably informed of the existence of a case. 

Cerebrospinal Meningitis. — Entirely unknown in an 
epidemic form. 

Hay Fever. — This very troublesome disease in certain 
and many parts of our own country, is an unheard of 
affection. 

Mumps. — The author could not learn that this disease 
in its contagious form had ever existed. 

Animal Poisons. 

Eeference has heretofore been made to the very curious 
fact of the native non-existence as a rule or law, of venom- 
ous reptiles, upon the western slope of the Andes, within 
the south temperate zone. This fact is well attested, and 
has a suggestive value in the consideration of our present 
subject. 

Of the remarkable disease called hydrophobia, the author 



PREVALENT DISEASES OF CHILE. 103 

believes himself justified in saying that it has never been 
known upon the whole coast. No physician with whom 
he conversed upon the subject, had ever seen a case, except- 
ing one, who stated that dogs were sometimes affected with 
the disease, and would then bite people coming in their 
way; but that the human cases were cared so promptly and 
easily as to make it a thing of no serious importance. 



CHAPTER IV. 

A Glance at the North Pacific Coast. 

It would form a valuable basis, for ^etiological general- 
ization, if the medical aspects of the whole north and south 
American Pacific coasts subjected to the peculiar physical 
conditions herein set forth, in their varying degrees, could 
be accurately and reliably mapped out. The writer has 
no personal experience with the Central American or Mexi- 
can coast. As directly bearing upon the subject, however, 
in connection with our own territory, he extracts the fol- 
lowing quotations from the Report on Practical' Medicine, 
made to the California State Medical Society at its meeting 
April 19, 1876, by Dr. Gibbons, a gentleman of national 
standing in the profession, and of more than twenty-five 
-years' residence in that state. 

Says Dr. Gibbons : " The absence of epidemics is wor- 
thy of note. Hitherto the epidemic tendency has been 
strangely wanting. In the autumn of 1850, and the en- 
suing summer, malignant cholera prevailed destructively in 
some localities. Several times since, it has been introduced 
in ships, and the subjects of it have been landed at San 
Francisco without restraint. But I am not aware that a 
single instance ever occurred in which it was even sus- 
pected to have been propagated. There have been several 
epidemics of small-pox, the last of which in 1870 was un- 
usually violent and fatal; diphtheria, scarlatina, measles, 
pertussis have been constantly present here and there in a 
sporadic or endemic form; cerebro-spinal meningitis has 



A GLAKCE AT THE NORTH PACIFIC COAST. 105 

made a few alarming threats in remote localities, but speed- 
ily disappeared. . . . Conjoined with public epidemic 
diathesis, there seems to exist an absence of contagious 
activity in many of that class known as generally con- 
tagious. . . . Nor have scarlatina and diphtheria within 
the range of my observation exhibited that active power of 
communication generally attributed to them. By far the 
larger proportion of cases have been sporadic and isolated, 
though occurring in families of children where no provi- 
sion was made against contagion." 

The reader cannot fail to note the coincidences between 
the conditions as above reported by Dr. Gibbons, and those 
herein laid down as belonging to the same coast in the 
southern hemisphere. One significant fact must be borne 
in mind, viz: that there exist upon the southern continent, 
enormous mountain peaks which dwarf anything of the 
kind upon our own ; and the earthquake energy is, there- 
fore, more frequently displayed and vastly more violent in 
the former than in the latter regions of the world. Besides 
this, there are other conditions pertaining to the California 
coast, which, without doubt, have some effect in widening 
the similitude existing between the latter and the extreme 
southern Pacific coast. These arise in great part, from the 
configuration of the north Pacific coast toward the North- 
ern seas; as also from the circumstance of the great Japan 
current of warm water, which in sweeping down bathes the 
California coast; both of these influences produce impor- 
tant modifications of the thermal, aqueous and electrical 
states of the last named coast. 

Resume. 

In the foregoing pages the author has presented a mass 
of statements, which, if they be founded upon correct 



106 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

observation, and the inference that the assumed exemption 
is due to peculiar physical conditions of the favored region, 
and not to the simple circumstance of isolation, be con- 
firmed by future investigation, must certainly be possessed 
of no unimportant interest to the pathologist in his gen- 
eral as well as special investigations, concerning the inti- 
mate nature of morbid action. 

Up to this point it has been his aim in the treatment of 
the medical questions involved herein, simply to bring out 
•the salient features under the strongest possible light, but 
to avoid speculation upon them. It has been his effort to 
state the facts carefully, that subsequent observation might 
only tend to confirm them. If he has erred in any particu- 
lar, therefore, it has resulted from inaccurate observation 
or misinformation upon the part of those, upon whom he 
was compelled, in many things, to rely. The facts are 
before the reader, who is now in position to draw his own 
deductions therefrom. His purpose, however, would be in- 
complete were these pages arrested at this point; or at 
least, without making an attempt to apply the facts pre- 
viously narrated to a practical consideration of the general 
causes, and possible therapeutics of the acute infectious 
diseases. 



PART IV. 

THE PHYSICS OF SPECIFIC CAUSATION. 



CHAPTER I. 

Ideal Function oe the Nervous System. 

It has happened to every student in chemistry, during 
the course of pupilage, to try the experiment of thrusting 
the poles of a bar of magnetic iron into a mass of iron 
filings, and to have witnessed the curious architecture of 
the little needles as they hung themselves about the central 
force. 

The animal organism is built upon the central ner- 
vous system. Each living molecule, as well as each of its 
atoms, however remote from the centre, holds its vital 
structure only so long as it remains within the influence of 
that principle, which physiologists have variously denomi- 
nated the "vital force," the "nervous force," etc. Every 
physical and vital operation of the system, from the raising 
of a finger to the fabrication of the most complex solid or 
fluid structure, is performed under the immediate influence 
of this mysterious agency. 

What is it ? We have no more precise conception of its 
intimate nature, than we have of that wonderful power — 
that invisible and apparently insubstantial something, by 
which the stars are held in their courses. But, if we can- 
not develop causes, we may clearly recognize effects; and 



108 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

it is very evident, that just as the sun is the central reservoir 
of energy for the planetary system about him, so is the cen- 
tral nervous axis, the reservoir of that vital energy through 
which our physical structure is maintained. 

The recognition of an agency indefinitely called the 
"vital force," in explanation of the intricate phenomena of 
animal life, became an imperative necessity with the very 
earliest biologists. But it has always been deemed by 
the strict vitalists, a special and peculiar essence, entirely 
inaccessible, and wholly hidden under the mysterious 
secrets of the Creative Power. Is a nearer approach pos- 
sible; can we see it even in shadow, or through a glass 
darkly? Strange questions, to be sure. But if it were in 
our power to approach it, only after the fashion that we 
have approached the one great energy of the universe, cer- 
tainly we should derive a practical benefit from a knowledge 
of its established laws. To follow the subject in detail, 
would carry the present volume far beyond its prescribed 
limits ; and therefore only those points can be touched upon 
having a relationship to our immediate line of inquiry. 

Is the nerve force derived from without, or is it inherent 
within the human system ? If we were to reply that it is both ; 
that it must be derived from the original force of nature, 
because existence is impossible apart from that force, and 
that it must also be inherent in the sense that its manifesta- 
tions are of a character peculiar, in many respects, to the 
economy, we should logically concede an affirmative to the 
first inquiry, because in such a statement the greater fact 
necessarily includes the less. This much, however, may 
be asserted, that the energic manifestations of animal life 
do not resemble, precisely, any form of physical energy 
with which Ave are acquainted. Its development has been 
roughly likened by some physiologists to the evolution of 



IDEAL FUNCTION OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 109 

electricity from a battery; and, perhaps, it could be termed, 
not inaptly, vital electricity, in order that a tangible some- 
thing might be presented to the mind. The electric energy 
approaches it, indeed, in some of its results, as, for instance, 
when a muscle responds to the galvanic current; but while 
it is clearly apparent, that the two forms of energy are not 
identical, the similitudes are just sufficiently recognizable 
to show the same essential basis underlying all of the great 

facts of nature. 

Vital Gravitation. 

The point we are discussing is one of overshadowing 
importance; for in the consideration of the mysterious 
agency emanating from the nervous centres we are stand- 
ing at the very threshold of the temple of life. We can go 
no further in our investigation, until we obtain some few 
lights, at least, to guide us through the labyrinths which 
now lie before us. The author has a full knowledge of the 
difficulties of position besetting the discussion of these 
questions; but, he, who seeks the truth should carry a well- 
set lance, and be prepared to ride his object down, regard- 
less of impediment. 

It has just been stated, that the animal organism is built 
upon the central nervous-axis. If we go deeply into the 
minutiae of generation, and tabulate the results of all our 
investigations as to the make-up of the fertilized germ, 
which is destined to expansion into the animal life, we shall 
find them expressed by a curved line — a very small line to 
be sure; but it is the first marking of the future figure, 
from which, as a centre, every other must be drawn in 
order to complete the proportions of the developed object. 
This line covers our vision, as to the facts beneath it; but 
we have learned to recognize in the line itself the centre of 
some mysterious force, from which every atom of the future 
6 



110 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

structure is developed, as the leaves and branches of a tree 
are developed from the main stem. We cannot go behind 
the line, but we may follow it, until it has left the field of 
the microscope^ and has become the central nervous-axis of 
the animal creature. If these statements pass unchallenged, 
then we are entitled to formulate a proposition to be em- 
braced in these wwds: Animal life begins in the 

CENTRAL NERVOUS-AXIS. 

After all that has been said in these pages upon the gen- 
eral subject of force, it will be unnecessary to go into a dis- 
cussion as to the nature of the force which has become an 
inherent of the small line spoken of. The author may 
remark, however, that the force itself is a derivative from 
the parents, and carries with it the features of the parent- 
age; and thus it covers, not alone the facts of heredity, but 
also those of distinct species. And if we follow it back 
through all the ages of each particular existence, we shall 
at last arrive at the inevitable conclusion, that the factor, 
force, has worked out the problem of the origin of species. 

But this innate principle of the nervous-axis is as much 
of a central fact, so far as relates to the atomic organism 
which clusters about it, as is that of gravitation which 
holds the animal form to the surface of the planet. The 
author, then, proposes, as a designation of the force resi- 
dent within the nervous-axis, appropriate until clearer 
ideas of all these subjects shall give us a better nomencla- 
ture, that of Vital Gravitation. 

We have been dealing with the thing itself, up to this 
point, and have taken no cognizance of its general mani- 
festations. To cover the idea involved by the force in 
action, no better term than that of vital energy can be 
given to it; and thus we may have a condition of plus ener- 
gy, and a condition of minus energy ; we may have a nor- 



IDEAL FUNCTION OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. Ill 

mal energy and a transmuted energy; it maybe motion 
here, and heat there; as we shall see further on. 

If all the foregoing propositions be coined from the 
metal of truth, and be not the spurious issue of the mere 
imagination, then we have advanced immensely, not only 
in the study of our present subject, but toward a better 
understanding of many things. As we have formulated 
one law, we may now formulate another, as follows: 
Animal existence resides, cle facto, within the cen- 
tral nervous-axis; and the first inspiration of the foetal 
being gives independent birth to a form of energy des- 
tined thenceforth to furnish the conditions of its oion per- 
petuation ivithin that particular economy, wherein the capi- 
tal facts of life run in a circle ivithout beginning or end, 
until the chain is broken by the hand of somatic death. 

Distribution of the Nervous Energy. 

In the inquiry as to the method of distributing the influ- 
ence which resides in the nervous-axis, to the various parts 
of the system which depend upon it for life, we have no 
difficulty in recognizing the nervous trunks and their rami- 
fications as the channel through which this is accomplished. 
These are the wires connecting the central battery with the 
peripheral and way stations. All this is clear enough; but 
unfortunately, it is but the simple expression of a naked 
fact stripped of every vestige of detail.. It must be the 
work of the future physiologist to supply the necessary 
garments. 

When we speak of "nervous currents/' "currents of 
nervous energy/' etc., we express the idea of the actual flow 
of a certain entity, just as we do when we speak of " cur- 
rents of electricity." As the representation of an ideal 
action, this is well enough ; but as the statement of a fact, 



112 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

it is a great fallacy. There is no more of an entity, or dis- 
tinct thing, transmitted over the nerve-trunks, than there 
is transmitted when electricity " parses over" a wire. It is 
in both cases a condition of the medium or media of trans- 
mission, which we recognize — not a substantial entity. 

Under such an interpretation we need be no more at 
a loss to understand why a spinal nerve with a common 
trunk, but having two roots, can transmit motor and sen- 
sory impressions at one and the same time, than we need 
be to comprehend the latest achievement of modern tele- 
graphy, viz : how four distinct messages can be sent over 
the same wire at the same instant. We must imagine a 
nerve trunk and a common wire, as well as everything else 
in nature having extension, as being constituted of rows or 
strings of the atoms composing it, just as beads are strung 
together for an ornament. The thickness of a nerve trunk 
or of a wire is determined by the number of these atomic rows 
which it contains. One single row will transmit an impres- 
sion in one direction, and its next neighbor will transmit 
an impression in the opposite direction, at the same instant. 
A single row of atoms will transmit, therefore, as perfect 
an impression as a million rows ; but the difficulty is, that 
even were we able to isolate a single row of atoms, as we 
are not, nor a thousand of them, the impression conveyed 
would be too delicate for our realization, either by touch or 
vision. The capacity of a nerve trunk or a wire, to trans- 
mit impressions, which are palpable to our senses, is, hence, 
only limited in number by our own ability to take cogniz- 
ance of them ; or if we may express it in so quaint a man- 
ner, by the size of the impression itself. The time will 
come, probably, when not only four messages, but a dozen 
will be sent speeding simultaneously over the same tele- 
graphic wire. 



IDEAL FUNCTION OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 113 

For the present we are compelled to express our ideas of 
the transmission of energy by the terms "currents," etc. 

Having cleared away all these preliminaries, and come 
to an understanding as to terms of expression, etc., we have 
yet to touch upon another point, before we can make a 
further advance. It is one of the most important branches 
of the intricate problems we are studying. We may term it 

The Localization of Energy, 

Anatomy shows us that the nervous-axis is composed of 
two wholly different structures, the gray and tvhite matters, 
respectively. The former is composed of the cell-element, 
and represents the seat of the higher functions of intellec- 
tion and sensation ; while the latter is composed of the fibrous 
or tubular structure representing motion and conduction. 

This, as a general fact, is remarkable enough, but it is 
surpassed by the details of the nervous functions and pro- 
cesses. Particular portions of the nervous-axis preside over 
particular functions and parts of the body. This is a fact 
of quite general recognition, and is illustrated by the nerves 
of the special senses ; by the functional operations which 
are invariably affected through the division of a particular 
nervous communication ; by experiments upon the brain, 
as of that by Bernard, who excited the sugar-making process 
by irritating the floor of the fourth ventricle; by experi- 
ments upon the spinal cord, the sympathetic, etc. 

The fact is susceptible of copious illustration and proof 
that every portion of the living body is presided over by a 
particular locality of the nervous-axis ; and that in some 
inscrutable manner, parts which seem in no way related, 
anatomically, are grouped together by nervous influence ; 
or, as the author elsewhere expresses it, lie in the same cir- 
cles of nervous energy. The curiosities of various reflex 



114 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

actions will at once suggest themselves as finding a ready 
explanation in this in disputable circumstance. 

But we shall find in the fact something more practical 
than curious if we search for it. Whatever may be the na- 
ture of the central force resident within the nervous-axis 
we cannot know; but there lies before us a conclusion 
which we must accept, simply because there is no alterna- 
tive. We are treading upon perilous ground, but it seems 
that we have none other upon which to stand. Just as it 
is a fact, that localization of the vital energy is at the bot- 
tom of differences of function, so it would appear to be 
a fact, also, that each anatomical part of the central nerv- 
ous-axis, which presides over other parts and functions, 
evolves a form of energy peculiar to the first mentioned part, 
which latter may be called a presiding- or function-centre, 
as regards the part or function presided over. 

If the localization of energy, called by late physiologists, 
localization of function, be a reality, then a form of energy 
specific to each anatomical locality, or perhaps, to each func- 
tion-centre, is a foregone conclusion. The author believes 
both theories to be true ; and in a subsequent work hopes 
to go into such details of these interesting topics as are pro- 
hibited in a work like the present. But upon the basis of a 
specific energy pertaining to each function-centre we may 
find the solution of some of the most inscrutable phenomena 
of life. The mysteries of heredity, whereby defects of con- 
stitution are transmitted to offspring, become easily under- 
stood. And further than this, the origin of species, a ques- 
tion heretofore shrouded in absolute darkness, may receive 
some intelligible interpretation upon the same basis. 

The point which the author now desires to bring into 
prominence is, that the localization "of energy, just spoken 
of, conveys a characteristic impress upon those functions 



IDEAL FUNCTION" OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 115 

and portions of the body, which lie 'within a specific circle, 
From this fact it results that type- diseases are capable of 
production. Every such disease involves an implication of 
certain organs and functions. The organs may be remote 
from each other, and the functions diverse in character. 
But variola, scarlatina, etc., mean the constant implication 
of certain organs and functions — only this, and nothing 
more. The impress of the contagium is made upon a 
point or points of the nervous-axis, which comprehends 
within its presiding influence those particular organs and 
functions lying within its own circle. 

In all these statements the author feels that he does not 
"theorize"; but is confident that he expresses many plain 
facts, a thousand proofs of which w r ill at once suggest them- 
selves to the observer, who has profited by study and expe- 
rience. Further considerations under this head will be 
presented when we come to consider the immediate cause 
of the infectious diseases, in subsequent pages, and where 
the circles of energy will be more fully dwelt upon. 

It will be then shown, also, that all diseased action in 
the human system is molecular in character, and that the 
alteration of the molecule depends entirely upon the energy 
behind it. Not to go further into the question at present, 
its mere mention is here made, in order that the two laws 
already announced may be supplemented by a third, viz : 

that ANIMAL EXISTENCE CEASES IN THE CENTRAL NERV- 
OUS-AXIS. Our propositions will now be summarized by 
the statement, that animal life begins, resides in, and is 
terminated by the central nervous-axis. 

In premising thus much upon the questions of the vital 
energy, we are in position to briefly consider those more 
immediately connected with our present inquiry ; and es- 
pecially to note the points of contact with, and features of 
resemblance between the " vital " and the " general " energies. 



CHAPTER II. 

The Source of Animal Heat. 

Physiologists have now abandoned the original the- 
ory of Lavoisier, that the production of the normal animal 
heat takes place exclusively within the lungs, as a result of 
the chemical union therein of oxygen and carbon. Many 
still hold to the belief, that its evolution is the direct 
product of combustion within the circulatory round, and 
within the tissues themselves; and as regards the abnormal 
development of heat, the opinion of Virchow is the preva- 
lent one, viz : "that elevation of temperature arises from an 
increased consumption of tissue — the latter effect appear- 
ing to have its cause in alterations of the nervous system" ; 
though of what these alterations may consist, not even a 
conjecture is made. 

While we are disposed to admit that the normal body 
heat is a product of the various processes involved in 
the functions of repair and waste, and in all organs of the 
system where the process of oxidation is going on ; yet it 
seems impossible to accept these methods in exclusive 
explanation of the increased general temperature of fever, 
or the circumscribed heat-increase of a local inflammation. 
If it be urged in explication of the increased heat of fever, 
that the respiration is more rapid and combustion more 
active in consequence thereof, it must be answered, that the 
increased motion involved in fever, must of itself represent 
an antecedent energic condition which equally demands 
explanation ; as it seems apparent that in such a statement 



THE SOURCE OF ANIMAL HEAT. 117 

we have simply shifted the question from one point to 
another. 

Insufficient to this extent, the theory utterly fails in 
explanation of the production of increased local heat with a 
normal respiration, and a tranquil action of the heart. To 
no greater degree will it suffice to account for the various 
thermal phenomena manifested after sections of the spinal 
cord, nerves, etc.; nor for the very interesting observations of 
Brown-Sequard, wherefrom it appears that pinching of the 
skin upon one side of the body diminishes heat in the cor- 
responding member of the other side ; and that by lowering 
the temperature of one side, we produce a lowering upon 
the other, with no notable depression of general heat. 
Rubor et tumor, cum calore et dolor e, said Cullen in descrip- 
tion of the phenomena of inflammation. Years of progress 
have hardly sufficed to supplement the terseness of this 
language, with a full and sufficient interpretation of all the 
essential factors of the process. 

"What then is the primary source of animal heat, and 
what are the contributing elements of the process ? This 
would be a most interesting question to discuss at length, 
in an appropriate place. It will answer our present pur- 
pose, however, to assert, that the fulfillment of a funcr 
tion, so important to the animal existence as the equable 
and precise supply of heat, which is practically the same 
within the belt of the tropics, and the zones of the polar 
regions, cannot rest exclusively upon its production through 
the mere union of oxygen and carbon particles, in the re- 
constructive and degenerative processes of the system. 

The whole function viewed in its normal as well as ab- 
normal aspects, simply involves energic transmutations ; 
but the total energy of the human system, is not at all 
measured by the metamorphic acts of repair and waste, 



118 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

nor by the proximate energic-capacities of food elements, 
or the " working-power " they contain. These represent 
energy, which is, at once, active, or only waiting to become 
so — passive; kinetic, actual, or potential. 

Behind it all lies a fact of stupendous moment, and one 
which the author has been steadily endeavoring to reach 
through all these remarks. A large portion of the oxygen 
which finds its way into the system through the lungs, 
and perhaps, to some extent, through that indispensable 
article, tvater, is carried through the circulation to the cere- 
brospinal axis — the centre of that force, which the author 
has elsewhere denominated Vital Gravitation — ivliere by 
some occult action between the agent which acts, and the thing 
which is acted upon, there is evolced a form of energy, which 
constitutes the true vital energy, and by means of which all 
the operations of animal life are carried on. We may think 
we see something parallel to this action in the chemical 
evolution of electricity from a battery ; but whether we do, 
or do not, the potential fact remains the same ; an invis- 
ible "current" begins to flow from the centre, which, in 
its course, is the current of life. It presides over every 
function, and sits at the feet of .the king of the tabernacle. 
It is active, it is passive; it is actual, it is potential. Here 
it is accelerative, there inhibitory ; here motion, there heat ; 
here chemical affinity, there atomic polarity ; here the 
action of day, and there the repose of night. 

In the discussion of the physical forces, in a preceding 
portion of this volume, it has been claimed, as is now 
largely admitted, that there exists but a single, primitive 
force, and that everyone of its known manifestations is but 
a transmutation of that original essence; that the body 
oxygen has a remarkable association with many of the 
manifestations of energy; and to carry the conclusion, ad 



THE SOURCE OF ANIMAL HEAT. 119 

m 
hoc, oxygen, as being so importantly concerned in these 
manifestations — it being equally impossible to burn a can- 
dle, in order to give us light; to inflame a pile of wood or 
coal, in order to furnish warmth, or consume the carbon 
particles within the system, in order to maintain the animal 
heat, without it — must be possessed of an inner character 
not yet revealed to the science of our time. However nearly 
these positions represent the real truth, the essential med- 
ical fact still confronts us, viz : that this body has a most 
profound and far-reaching importance to the human econo- 
my. To what extent or in what sense the fact relates to 
the infectious diseases, we shall inquire further on. 



CHAPTER III. 

The Theories of Specific Causation. 

We now approach a consideration of one of the most 
difficult problems in the whole range of pathology — that 
which relates to the agencies operative in the production of 
a class of diseases, characterized by a distinct personality, 
so to speak, and with the power of indefinite type repro- 
duction. The subject has engaged the attention of the 
most astute minds which have ever adorned the ranks of 
pathology; and although we are now in possession of 
greatly improved methods and appliances for successful 
investigation, the vital questions underlying the inquiry, 
still remain without satisfactory answer. 

The author proposes a brief review of the now generally 
accepted theory, and an extension of the line of thought 
growing out of the physical considerations heretofore de- 
veloped in these pages, in such direction as it seems natu- 
rally to lead. As a preface, however, to future observations, 
let us take a mere glance at a closely related subject. 

The Order of Life in Nature, 

In the light of well-settled principles, it is no unreason- 
able supposition, that certain physical conditions of the 
earth and air may be either promotive or destructive of 
certain forms of life; or that one chain of physical cir- 
cumstance may call trooping into varied existence, forms 
of organization, which under a different chain would be 
utterly impossible. As proof of this fact we have but to 



THE THEORIES OF SPECIFIC CAUSATION. 121 

view the disposition of life upon our planet, in our own 
age. The fauna and flora of different sections of the world, 
are found to be widely diverse in character,. as was first dis- 
tinctly pointed out by Humboldt, in his Essay on the 
Geography of Plants, which philosopher erected Phyto- 
geography into a separate science. 

The learned Dr. Draper, of New York, in one of his 
delightful volumes,* has fully discussed the question as to 
how far man in his physical or corporeal attributes, is sus- 
ceptible of modification under physical influences; and has 
adduced an imposing array of facts and arguments in sup- 
port of his position, that man in many of his purely 
physical aspects, is largely the creature of climatic circum- 
stance. 

In relation to both animals and plants, we have but to 
look at the North and South American continents in order 
to realize the changes which nature works through her va- 
ried conditions. Nor can these depend, alone, upon differ- 
ences of temperature; as lines of equal heat may be fol- 
lowed throughout the different sections of the globe, and 
local characteristics of animal and plant life still be found 
preserved. Nor yet can they depend, alone, upon mean or 
periodic amounts of humidity or rainfall ; as localities thus 
related in a precisely similar manner, still maintain their 
distinctive characteristics of life-forms. 

In extension of this analogy, let us step out of our legit- 
imate path for a few moments, in order to take a hasty 
retrospect of a subject, which, while not essential to the 
convincing illustration of the principle above set forth, is 
nevertheless possessed of most fascinating interest to every 
student of nature ; and as such has its interest, also, to the 

* " Thoughts on the Future Civil Policy of America," by John William Dra- 
per, M.D., LL.D. 



122 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

medical man. The remarkable progression of life upon 
our planet is here referred to. 

The Fauna of Past Ages. 

Passing the mysterious azoic age of the geologists, from 
which no voice reaches us proclaiming the existence of life 
during that epoch of the world's infancy, and reaching to 
those indelibly marked by its imprint, we find proofs of 
organized forms, which must have borne distinct relation- 
ship to the prevalent physical conditions of the planet. 
Nature's biography of existences, which have " strutted 
their brief hour upon the stage," and given place to others 
in succession, is a volume of astounding occurrences. 
From the small and curious Eozoon in the Lanrentian 
series; through the Silurian, with its brachiopoda, encrin- 
ites and perfected trilobites ; the Devonian, with its high 
order of fishes; the wonderful Carboniferous or age of stu- 
pendous vegetation, when the air must have been so loaded 
with carbon gases that no such animal as man could pos- 
sibly have existed; and when the immense beds of coal, 
from which the world now draws its fuel supply, existed in 
a gaseous form in the atmosphere; the age of Eeptiles, 
with its monster Saurians; the age of the great Mammals, 
with its mastodons and other enormous creatures; through 
the Ice-Period, up to the time when man, as the master- 
creation, came upon the earth, all alike tell the same 
strange story of special forms under special conditions. 

The Flora of the Past 

Geologists tell us that there are indefinite markings of 
plant life as low down as the Silurian and Cambrian beds; 
but these were not much higher forms than mere sea- 
weeds, preceding the rich development of vegetable life 



THE THEORIES OF SPECIFIC CAUSATION. 123 

during the Devonian — that age rendered famous by Hugh 
Miller in his studies of the " Old Eed Sandstone." 

Up to the beginning of the Cretaceous period, the only 
known flora were pines, cycads and various forms of cryp- 
togamic vegetation. At this time, however, a remark- 
able development occurs; flowering plants — the dicoty- 
ledonous — those higher forms of vegetable and plant life, 
have made their appearance. Along with this great change, 
marking another click in Nature's time-piece, comes hand- 
in-hand an almost incredible fact, viz : that many forms of 
tropical vegetation, as the myrtle, fig-tree, oleander, etc., 
flourished luxuriantly in that region now embraced under 
the name of Greenland, where natural vegetation, with the 
exception of the small forms of snow-lichens, is impossible. 

Do these facts, so hastily detailed, bear any general prin- 
ciple, important in their application to the questions of 
disease-causation ? The writer believes they do, and that it 
must be largely through the study of such questions that 
we shall at length be enabled to solve the causes of local- 
ity diseases — those, too, which have a double interest to 
us, as being, like an exotic plant, susceptible of extended 
transportation. 

With these apparent digressions from the routine of 
medical discourse, let us proceed to the consideration of the 
two principal hypotheses of causation, in explanation of 
the infectious diseases. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Hypothesis of 'the Living Gekm. 

That very elementary forms of phyto-parasitic life exist 
abundantly in our atmosphere, as the germs and sporules 
of mould and other fungi; bacteria, vibriones, minute mo- 
nads, etc. etc., is a fact easy of demonstration. Whether 
they, or any of them, constitute specific sources of disease ; 
are simply the bearers of contagia, or destitute entirely 
of any agency in the premises, are questions now being 
hotly discussed by the investigators of all countries; and 
still remain, notwithstanding the volumes written upon 
them, without solution of a demonstrative and convincing- 
character. 

The doctrine of a living organism as the causative agent 
of an infectious disease — 'the contagium vivnm — is not a 
new one to our generation, having been arrived at by the 
physicians of more than three centuries ago, in explanation 
of the well settled facts of the transmissibility and individ- 
ual specificity of such diseases. Though a gradual decline 
in this opinion again took place, and the chemical, ferment- 
ative, or zymotic theory became the popular creed, yet the 
past decade, marked by improved methods of observation, 
and more extended and advanced collateral information, 
has witnessed the revival of the living-contagion theory, 
and its very large, not to say quite general acceptance. 

The idea involved is still a very general one; neither 
the precise forms of particular organisms as causative of 
particular diseases, nor the modus by which they produce 



HYPOTHESIS OF THE LIVING GEEM. 125 

their particular effects, having been definitely decided; ex- 
cept that as to the former, Hallier claims to have discov- 
ered a special type in connection with cholera, and Ober- 
meier one in connection with relapsing fever. 

The schizomycetes, so called because of their reproduc- 
tion by fission, embrace bacteria and their broods as well as 
many low forms of life; but the word bacteria has become 
in relationship to these diseases, a generic term, embracing 
all of the varieties of phy to-atmospheric life, which may be 
supposed to operate in the direction indicated. 

Objections to the Theory. 

In approaching a consideration of the merits of this 
hypothesis, we are met at the very threshold of inquiry, by 
a perplexing question, closely related to the main one, and 
not to be avoided in its discussion. 

With our established knowledge of the constant and 
omnipresent existence of these bacterial forms and their 
germs, in our atmosphere, it would seem a foregone conclu- 
sion, that as direct sources of specific disease, they should 
constantly operate in the specific channel ; and as being 
vested with certain and definite results upon the human 
system, cause and effect should invariably be present, as 
well as apparent. The atmosphere constantly swarms with 
the germs of these very organisms supposed to be the direct 
causes of particular and special types of disease. This can 
easily be demonstrated by the simple experiment of prepar- 
ing an infusion of turnip, or of any organic substance, and 
permitting it to stand exposed to the air for from two to 
six days; when upon placing a drop of the liquid under 
the microscope it will be found teeming with bacteria and 
other of the lowest forms of life, as compared with which 
latter, ordinary mildew stands high in the scale of organ - 
6* 



126 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

ization. Indeed, the chief difficulty of experiment upon 
this subject lies in the effort to exclude germ particles from 
the air ; and hence the necessity of filtration, calcination, etc., 
of that medium in order to obtain it pure and free of germ life. 

It will not satisfy the spirit of logical inquiry, nor our 
conceptions of specific causation, to allege that at one par- 
ticular time the cause is operative in one direction ; at an- 
other time in another direction, and at another still, it is 
not operative at all. If a person be continuously exposed 
to the malarial poison, it is but a question of time and indi- 
vidual resistance as to when he shall succumb to its influence, 
which latter is always manifested in the same direction and 
by the same well known features. The malarial poison 
produces periodic fevers, and can no more set up in the sys- 
tem, the morbid action involved in scarlatina or variola, 
than can the union of four-footed animals produce a bird, 
or that of birds, a fish. 

There seems but one escape for the bacterial. hypothesis 
from the dreadful logic of " Plato's man/' which lies in the 
assumption that sjjeciftc bacterial forms are generated dur- 
ing the prevalence of specific diseases. This position is frail 
and hazardous, being beset by the whole question of spon- 
taneous generation. The battle which long prevailed be- 
tween the panspermists and the heterogenists still continues 
to some extent, and as relating to the fungoid organisms, 
w T e have the experiments and arguments of Pasteur in 
favor of the omne vivnm ex vivo dogma, and those of 
Bastian in defense of de novo origin. To the writer it 
seems plain, that the well-known facts of generation go to 
demonstrate most conclusively, that not only does all life 
come from the living, but, also, that all life comes from life 
of a similar kind — nature very promptly arresting the Jin- 
eal propagation of accidental or hybrid offspring. 



HYPOTHESIS OF THE LIVING GERM. 127 

But, in addition to such considerations, it does not ap- 
pear that the bacterial hypothesis covers the facts and 
phenomena of specific disease-action; nor that any definite 
causal relation can be established. It is difficult, for in- 
stance, to explain the fact of the non-recurrence of certain 
of the infectious diseases by an influence wholly extraneous 
to the body. The ordinary conception of a " fermentative" 
action in the blood is not sound in face of the fact, that the 
blood is constantly being replenished by the processes of 
sanguification upon the basis of its normal constitution ; 
and that the time must arrive when, as representative of 
its primitive state, it will be ready to reundergo the same 
fermentative change. If a permanent molecular change be 
alleged, then, of necessity, forces and actions specifically 
pertaining to the system itself are invoked, upon which it 
is quite as easy to found a causative conception as to non- 
recurrence, as upon the original bacterial impress. 

Again : the theory is silent as to why such infectious dis- 
eases as chicken-pox, hooping cough, etc., should attack the 
blood of a child, and not that of an adult ; w r hy some of the 
infectious diseases are^ directly communicable, while some 
are not; why such a disease as cholera should only be per- 
petuated by a development of the poison out of the system, 
and why the fresh dejections containing, as they should, 
the causative agent, are powerless to transmit it. It does 
not of itself explain the great fact of hereditary transmis- 
sion ; nor can it give a satisfactory reason for the periodic 
features of such acute diseases as small pox, the entire fever 
of which disappears upon the appearance of the eruption ; 
nor of relapsing fever, the febrile movement of which van- 
ishes with clock-like regularity; the exacerbations of both 
to recur with unerring precision. One observer professes 
to have seen numerous specimens of spirillar in the blood 



128 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

of patients with the latter disease, while the fever was on ; 
to have seen them disappear during the remission, and re- 
appear upon the febrile return. We can have no conception 
of how causes apparently so accidental can be followed by 
effects so chronologically precise. The progressive develop- 
ment of progeny as the exciting cause of periodic action, is at 
entire variance with the circumstances and logic of the case. 
And finally, as strongly refutative of the theory may be 
mentioned the well-known fact, that the various fluids of 
the infectious- or contagious-disease subject, are altogether 
the most powerful in the comparatively recent state, when 
there exist but few bacterial forms of life in them ; and the 
least noxious, when sufficient time has^elapsed to develop 
them in great numbers. 

The Question of Fermentation. 

Lately, the researches upon the process of fermenta- 
tion, which appear to have developed vegetable organisms, 
as the exciting causes of that remarkable action, have been 
adduced as strong supports of the bacterial hypothesis. 
It must be remembered, however, that as yet, the results of 
these investigations are of the most conflicting character. 
The experiments of Pasteur have been more extended than 
those of. any other observer. It is curious to follow his 
deductions as to the influence of oxygen upon the organ- 
isms, which he supposes to be causes of the various fermen- 
tations. It serves as a food for the ferment, and in a free 
state, it retards or prevents fermentation ; it kills the buty- 
ric vibriones supposed to cause butyric fermentation, and it 
brings about acetic fermentation of alcohol, which is sup- 
posed to be caused by mycoderma aceti.* 

* See the articles. of M. Pasteur on Alcoholic Fermentation, in Ann. de Chi- 
mie et Physique ; Etudes sur le Yin. Compt. Rend, de VAcad. des Sciences; On 
Yeast. Bullet. Soc. Chimique. etc. 



HYPOTHESIS OF THE LIVING GERM. 129 

That not only vegetable, but also animal cells, under 
favoring conditions, have the power of setting up fermenta- 
tion's beyond doubt; but whether the vegetable organisms 
observed in connection with the ordinary fermentations by 
Pasteur and others, are the prime agents or simply inci- 
dents of the process, is still an open question. Pasteur's 
experiments are defective, in that the fermentative pro- 
cesses were not observed in calcined air, to the end that no 
organic germs other than those contained in a given quan- 
tity of the ferment might complicate the process. 

The following considerations, as it seems to the author, 
militate against Pasteur's conclusions as to the various fer- 
mentations being caused by broods of special vegetable 
organisms. The soluble ferments of the body, as ptyalin 
and pepsin, are competent, through their vital endowments, 
to produce metamorphosis in certain bodies, as that of 
starch into sugar, etc. The fermentative action of diastase 
upon starch which results in the production of sugar, is 
precisely imitated by the action of dilute boiling sulphuric 
acid upon starch. These facts show that one variety of 
molecular transformation, which as truly represents a "fer- 
mentation," as does the subsequent progress of sugar into 
alcohol, carbon dioxide, succinic acid and glycerine, occurs 
apart from the development of special vegetable organisms. 

But there exists another militant circumstance more 
directly bearing upon the subject, which is to be found in 
the rapid effect of free electricity upon fresh milk and other 
substances containing sugar. It is well known to dairy- 
maids, that a thunder-storm will "clabber" milk in a very 
short time after being drawn from the cow. In other 
words, the milk will become sour from the development of 
lactic acid, which latter quickly coagulates the casein. The 
conversion of sugar into lactic acid is a very simple process, 



130 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

and only involves a splitting of the sugar molecule accord- 
ing to the following formula: 

Sugar. Lactic Acid. 

C 6 H 12 6 = 20 3 H 6 3 

A similar illustration may also be mentioned in this place. 
The article called mead is a very common and highly esteemed 
summer beverage. It is prepared by subjecting honey or 
sugar in solution, to the alcoholic fermentation, by the addi- 
tion of yeast. Usually, from thirty-six to forty-eight hours 
are required to bring about the process, and to render the 
liquid ready for use. But the makers of it well know, that 
a sudden thunder-storm will "sour" it over night, the alco- 
holic fermentation being set aside, and the lactic developed. 

Now, the change by which the decomposition of the 
sugar molecule in both cases, is brought about, begins im- 
mediately upon a sufficient manifestation of the electric 
energy in the atmosphere, which need not be of very pro- 
nounced character; and the whole process of conversion, 
including the coagulation of the casein, in the case of the 
milk, is completed in a very short time, — frequently not 
exceeding a few hours. The author need not dwell upon 
the evidence furnished by the foregoing . facts, and must 
leave them for reconciliation or explanation, to those who 
advocate the doctrine of special microphytic ferments. 

These considerations, however, with others, which might 
be adduced, render the author unwilling to accept the full 
conclusions of Pasteur's school regarding the precise agencies 
of fermentation. Nay, the older doctrine of catalytic action, 
so ably defended by Liebig, cannot be said to be overthrown 
as yet. According to him " the cause of fermentation is 
the internal molecular motion, which a body in the course 
of decomposition, communicates to other matter in which 
the elements are connected by a very feeble affinity/' 



HYPOTHESIS OF THE LIVING GEEM. 131 

The whole subject has a much closer relationship to the 
class of infectious diseases in particular, than is generally 
realized; and its study is capable of producing most sub- 
stantial results in the interest of disease-causation. 

Prevalence of Atmospheric Germs. 

As to germs of organic life, the atmosphere, under ordi- 
nary conditions, swarms with them ; this is readily seen by 
allowing a beam of light to enter a darkened room, when 
the little particles of dust constantly in motion, and un- 
doubtedly containing a large percentage of organic germs, 
become visible. But these particles, numerous as they are, 
and only apparent to the naked eye under the circumstances 
mentioned, as we have every reason to believe, are very mam- 
moths in size as compared to the infinitesimal creations, 
which the human eye will probably never see, in shadow or in 
substance. The following description by Pascal, cannot 
be considered entirely poetical, in view of recent develop- 
ments in this direction : " Let man investigate the smallest 
things of all he knows ; let this dot of an insect, for instance, 
exhibit to him in its diminutive body parts incomparably 
more diminutive, jointed limbs, veins in those limbs, blood 
in those veins, in that blood humors, and drops within 
those humors — let him still subdividing these finest points, 
exhaust his power of conception, and let the minutest ob- 
ject his fancy can shape be that one of which we are now 
speaking — he may, perhaps, suppose that to be the extreme 
of minuteness in Nature. I will make him discover yet a 
new abyss within it. I will draw for him not merely the 
visible universe, but all besides that his imagination can 
grasp, the immensity of Nature, within the confines of that 
imperceptible atom." Nor this of Tyndall : " There exist 
in the atmosphere, particles of matter which elude the 



132 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

microscope and the scales, which do not disturb its clear- 
ness, and yet are present in it in so immense a multitude 
that the Hebrew hyperbole of the number of grains of sand 
on the seashore becomes comparatively unmeaning/' 

Conclusions as to the Bacterial Hypothesis. 

The summing up of the author's views upon the bac- 
terial hypothesis, may be stated in some such form as the 
following : 

Is it probable that the human body may be affected by 
particulae of greater or less proportions, and organic or 
inorganic in nature, contained in the surrounding media? 

Undoubtedly. We have conclusive evidence upon the 
point; not only in recognized parasitic diseases, but in 
the malarial poison, which, as susceptible of being barred 
off by mechanical obstructions, is presented to our minds 
in the form of a substantial entity, however infinitesimal 
in character it may be. 

Is it not a fair inference, then, that the infectious dis- 
eases are caused by the bacterial germs, as now so largely 
claimed ? 

In face of the negative character of all the testimony 
alleged in favor of such a theory, and the positive nature 
of that against it, the inference cannot be a fair one. 

Under what circumstances or conditions are these bac- 
terial germs developed ? 

This question involves a wide discussion of the laws 
governing vitalized matter, and a general proposition con- 
cerning it will be stated further on. At present, Ave may 
say, that these organisms are now known to be developed 
in connection with animal or vegetable decomposition ; or, 
in other words, when the vital energy, which gives to bodies 
over which it presides a complex molecular organization, is 



HYPOTHESIS OF THE LIVING GERM. 133 

no longer operative ; and when, therefore, the general forces 
of nature begin the work of bringing the vital molecule 
into immediate subordination to its own laws, whereby 
it is resolved into more elementary combinations, these 
micro-organisms find pabulum for development, which 
their feeble organizations could not extract from living 
compounds. Hence, they are found in the healthy hu- 
man body in connection with retrograde metamorphosis 
of tissue, as for instance upon mucous surfaces with their 
effete debris ; in diseased states in general; in connection 
with pus formation : with adventitious deposits ; with the 
effete products of febrile action, etc. etc. They are like- 
wise contained in much of the food and drink which we 
take. 

All of the foregoing considerations seem to justify the 
conclusion, that the bacterial hypothesis cannot be founded 
in truth, because, first: The germs believed to produce the 
infectious diseases are constantly present in the atmosphere, 
in non-epidemic, as well as in epidemic seasons ; second : 
The non-transportable, endemic infectious diseases — those 
not personally communicable — of which the malarial fevers 
may be adduced as a type, prove, so far as one fact may prove 
a general law, that specific disease-poisons belong only to 
certain localities and conditions ; and hence, third : Those 
infectious diseases capable of exotic transplantation into 
unindigenous sections of the globe, must be rendered so, 
through the fabrication of a virus by the affected system 
itself. 



OHAPTEE V. 

Hypothesis of the Contagious Bioplast. 

Dk. Lionel S. Be ale has advanced another hypothesis, 
behind which, undoubtedly, there lies some truth, and 
which may be briefly stated as follows. Dr. Beale assumes 
the existence of an original plastic or germinal matter, as 
the basis of all organized life, which matter he terms bio- 
plasm, and maintains its distinctness from the original 
matter of Huxley, called by the latter protoplasm. The 
pus corpuscle formed in inflammation is but a form of bio- 
plasm ; and ordinary pus can be generated by simply in- 
creasing the nutritive pabulum of any ordinary elementary 
part. Under specific conditions not yet know T n, a pus with 
peculiar and specific properties or powers is formed, and the 
contagious bioplast is generated. In this manner the spe- 
cific influence is constituted, and there is no actual neces- 
sity of a preceding specific influence, but the contagious 
influence should be capable of spontaneous production. 
Dr. Beale maintains that the specific contagium, like pus, 
has originally descended from some form of normal bio- 
plasm. 

The contagious bioplast is susceptible of transportation, 
and of entering the system of another, where it grows by 
multiplication during the incubatory stage, until the whole 
system is infected, and the original disease produced. 

The details of this theory are quite incomplete, and in 
many particulars, unsatisfactory. One of its essential 
weaknesses lies in the assumption of a possible spontaneous 



HYPOTHESIS OF THE CONTAGIOUS BIOPLAST. 135 

production of the contagious bioplast; or, in other words, 
that a purely specific disease may arise de novo. This as- 
sumption is negatived by everything we know regarding 
this class of diseases ; and any theory which seeks to dis- 
pense with an antecedent parentage manifestly leaves out of 
the problem its principal factor. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Hypothesis of the Infectious Molecule. 

With a view to arrive at some practical conclusions, 
from the facts and arguments heretofore adduced in this 
volume, let us consider the acute infectious diseases, first, 
as to their origin; and second, as to their mode of propaga- 
tion. 

Origin of the Infectious Diseases. 

That certain of the infectious diseases are caused by a 
positive entity, too minute in character to have been recog- 
nized as yet, we have convincing proof; as, for instance, in 
the poison of the malarious diseases, which may be inter- 
cepted by mechanical obstructions. In this case, there 
exists a specific-disease influence, occurring in certain lo- 
calities and under certain conditions; and always produc- 
ing a typical disease in those whom it affects. Against 
these premises, there can be no valid exception. Hitherto 
we have been led to regard this poison as of vegetable char- 
acter, and in view of Dr. Salisbury's claim that he had found 
the producing agent in the palmellae, it seemed as substan- 
tial in character as are the present supposed infecting bac- 
teria. But we have no proof that this poison may not be 
of animalcular nature, as we have none that the whole class 
of original infection-disease producers, may not be of that 
constitution. 

Perhaps one of the most remarkable developments relat- 
ing to this subject, is that of the Verrugas Fever, heretofore 
spoken of in these pages. The locality which gave special 



HYPOTHESIS OF THE INFECTIOUS MOLECULE. 137 

birth to this fever, or, at all events, which gave it notice 
and prominence, was at an altitude of nearly 6,000 feet 
above the sea, in an arid and rainless region, where a few 
characteristic cacti represent the scanty flora. "Water tum- 
bles, at certain periods, through a deep chasm spanned by 
the Verruga bridge, 262 feet below the track level. It was 
upon breaking ground in this particular place, that the 
poison of this peculiar disease was let loose; gathered its 
victims; lived for a season only; vanished and left no sign, 
except in its heritage to the sufferers from its attacks. All 
of the circumstances of occurrence, locality and physical 
surroundings, point to the belief, that the poison consisted, 
rather of minute animal than of vegetable life. 

An Original Habitat. 

But the principle represented by that great truth of 
nature, so copiously illustrated in the preceding pages, viz : 
that special organic forms exist under special conditions, 
must now be considered in its direct application to our 
subject. 

Every organized existence has its original habitat or 
habitats — the place or places whence it started — the 
locality to which it is indigenous, by reason of the preva- 
lence of those general conditions which render its existence 
possible. This must be as true of the entities which origi- 
nally produce the infectious diseases, as it is of any of the 
high forms of organic life. Malarial diseases, for example, 
are generated in a certain locality, differing in no sensible 
characteristic from another, which is entirely exempt from 
the influence. The Chabalongo, or typhoid fever of Chile 
is a special type, indigenous to certain parts only., of that 
country ; while the Verrugas of Peru, sprang from a cir- 
cumscribed spot, where probably no human foot had before 



138 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

trodden. Other locality diseases will be mentioned pres- 
ently. 

While the correctness of these observations so far as the 
so-called miasmatic order of infectious diseases are con- 
cerned, must be at once, admitted, it will be readily per- 
ceived that the class of transportable diseases, represented 
by cholera, the home of this latter in India, being fixed 
beyond dispute, fall within the same laws. 

All of the infectious diseases, undoubtedly, possess an 
original habitat, where it is probable they are now, as 
always, capable of spontaneous origin, in their primitive 
form, whatever that may be. The difficulty of tracing 
disease-types through various localities, and among different 
peoples of the globe, have up to this time prevented a pre- 
cise knowledge upon the point, which time may yet bring 
us. It seems tolerably certain, however, that the several 
acute infectious diseases named below have the nativities 
here attributed to them. 

The Cholera. — Has its home in India. 

The Smallpox. — In the East. Known in China nearly 
1200 years before Christ. 

The Plague. — An Oriental disease. Has a distinct geo- 
graphical range. 

The Typhus Fever. — Ireland its birthplace. 

The Typhoid and Relapsing Fevers. — Have fixed centres 
in Ireland, Galicia, Upper Silesia, and some provinces of 
northern Italy. 

The Miliary Fever. — Is endemic in a few provinces of 
France, Germany and Italy. 

Scarlatina. — Probably native to Arabia. 

Epidemic Dysentery. — Home in the tropics. 

The Dengue. — In southern latitudes, with sharp geo- 
graphical limits. 



HYPOTHESIS OF THE INFECTIOUS MOLECULE. 139 

The Yellow Fever. — Distinctly traced to the Antilles. 

The Chabalongo. — Chile. 

The Verruga. — Peru. 

In this connection may be mentioned the claim of 
Hallier, the professor at Jena, who has devoted much 
attention to microphytology, and who has cultivated many 
of the supposed microphytes of infection, that the natural 
home of all penicillum-bearing fungi, is Asia. However 
this may be, the already established facts bearing upon the 
subject of locality in connection w 7 ith specific diseases, 
represent a principle of broad application ; and is destined 
greatly to extend the present list of specific diseases. It is 
not difficult to believe, that the particular conditions of cer- 
tain climates considered in the enlarged sense of embracing 
all of the telluric and aerial events and circumstances, 
in their connection with sewer gas, may call into develop- 
ment som'e individual influence, carrying with it a specific 
impress upon the human system. Of this nature, certainly, 
is the poison producing the Chabalongo of Chile, as it prob- 
ably was of that lying behind the old "National Hotel 
disease" at Washington. Upon the same basis, the author 
has learned to regard the production of phthisis pulmonalis 
as due to a specific influence, developed under precise con- 
ditions pertaining to particular localities. Certain it seems, 
that no general influences of exposure or even bad hygienic 
surroundings, will establish the typical 'disease away from 
its local habitats, except through the penalties of heredity. 

As to the intimate nature of the contagia which give 
native origin to the specific diseases, we are without any 
certain knowledge whatever. We may believe them to be 
of animal or of vegetable character; and that they may 
directly belong to the earth or air, or indirectly proceed 
from the lower animal creation. And notwithstanding the 



140 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

claim of chemistry to the contrary, the writer is not wholly 
prepared to believe in the impossibility of a gaseous mole- 
cule, as representative of a toxic energy, susceptible of 
specific impress upon the system. Whatever the nature of 
these specific agents, however, one thing seems quite cer- 
tain ; that, as in the case of the malarial poison, the infect- 
ing molecule is infinitely more microscopic in dimensions 
than the phyto-organisms classed under the general term 
bacteria. 

Their Mode of Propagation. 

Only those of the acute diseases herein designated as 
"transportable," fall under consideration in this place. 
But two methods of transportation are possible; first, by 
means of the original virus or its progeny; and second, 
by the transfer of its representative results in the system. 
The author has already stated his inability to accept the 
first explanation, and is necessarily driven to the second. 
Upon what basis, then, may such an idea rest? 

Vital Polarity. 

In considering this question, the conclusions of the pre- 
ceding pages must be constantly borne in mind. It has 
been stated, that the central nervous axis is the true re- 
pository of the vital force, and that the whole material 
structure of the body is built upon it. This implies not 
only force in general, for structural organization and make- 
up, but likewise, force in detail for functional activity. 
Each atom of the human body possesses what may be called 
a vital polarity ; and the precise atomic constitution or 
arrangement of each molecule of any particular tissue, 
represents the aggregate polarity of all the atoms compos- 
ing it. The organic, like the inorganic molecule, represents 
the ultimate division of matter, to the point where the quali- 



HYPOTHESIS OF THE INFECTIOUS MOLECULE. 141 

ties of the substance still inhere. Beyond that point, of 
course, we destroy the substance, and resolve it back to its 
atomic elements. The organic molecule, though never hav- 
ing been handled like the inorganic, is, nevertheless, as much 
of a verity; and if we wish to deal intelligently with the 
maladies of the human body, we must approach it, in its 
atomic and molecular make-up, just as the chemist has 
done with the bodies falling under his scrutiny. 

The Organic Molecule, 

It results from this basis of construction, that the hu- 
man body in ideal health, has a very typical molecular con- 
stitution, which remains intact just so long as the normal 
energy is equably supplied, so to express it; and the molec- 
ular polarity is undisturbed. The molecule of the human 
body has an atomic arrangement so very complex, that we 
may readily generalize a proposition maintaining, that the 
higher the nervous organization of an animal (apart from 
all considerations of mind), the more complex the composi- 
tion of the molecule. As an instance let us cite the follow- 
ing formula of albumen as proposed by Lieberkuhn : 

*- ; 72 -tl-112^ 18^^22 • 

When we attempt to construct the arrangement of the 
albumen molecule out of such a formula, so as to satisfy 
the polar affinities, or in chemical language, the quantiva- 
lence, of all its atoms, we realize what an intricate mechan- 
ism we are studying. 

Now, there is nothing, whatever, theoretical in these 
considerations pertaining to organic structure; but just 
as certainly as that inorganic bodies are built up of mole- 
cules, which assume the relative situations demanded by 
their polar forces, and thus give form to the particular 
body, 'just so certainly is the organic body constructed 



142 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

upon similar principles ; the notable difference being, that 
in the inorganic world, the energy animating the particles 
of matter is derived directly from the forces of nature; 
while with the organic particles, it is an indirect derivative, 
through the structure of the organism itself. 

Here the author places himself in direct antagonism to 
those ultra-chemists who maintain, that there is nothing 
peculiar in organic chemistry, and that its actions are sub- 
ject to the same laws as those governing inorganic matter ; 
and who attempt the proof of the correctness of this view, 
by their ability to construct some compounds belonging to 
the animal body, outside of the operation of its peculiar laws. 
This claim is partly true and partly erroneous; true, in so 
far as it relates to an essential principle governing every 
atom in the universe; and erroneous, in so far as it relates 
to the specific energy of particular things, or forms of 
matter. 

The Vital Chemistry. 

The whole animal system is primarily made up of inor- 
ganic elements ; and some of its compounds, as phosphate 
of lime, for example, are the same substances in the organic 
and in the inorganic worlds. The laws of chemical affinity, 
as displayed in the laboratory, may be operative, therefore, 
within the animal to the extent that the most radical inorganic 
chemistry may claim. But vital chemistry rises above the 
circumstance, that carbon has a strong affinity for oxygen ; 
chlorine for hydrogen, etc. ; and taking a certain number 
of atoms of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and hydrogen, forms, 
perhaps a molecule of fibrous tissue; or perhaps a molecule 
of cutaneous tissue ; or perhaps a molecule of cellular tissue, 
etc. etc. There is, apparently, no limit to the diversity of 
combination in the high organic molecule. Its peculiar 
features nowhere pertain in the inorganic world, as the 



HYPOTHESIS OF THE INFECTIOUS MOLECULE. 143 

force or energy which determines it, is exclusively resident 
within the vital economy. 

Though the chemist, by analysis, may tell us the con- 
stituent atoms of certain products of the living being; and 
though he may be able, even, to reconstruct or produce 
some simple forms in his laboratory, yet his unimportant 
results in this direction only prove the existence of a force 
presiding over the methods of vital chemistry, which ren- 
der him impotent to construct such eminently vital products 
as urea; not to speak of the characteristic structures of a 
healthy body, as muscle, flesh, blood, nerve; nor the prod- 
ucts of disease, as pus, etc. No sensible person expects the 
accomplishment of such things, of course; but the ultra 
claims of some chemists logically involve this, and nothing 
less. 

The distinction, then, is broad and apparent; and under 
this interpretation, the observations of the author upon the 
vital chemistry in health and in disease, must be under- 
stood. 

Molecular Nature of Disease. 

But to return. Every diseased action of the system, be 
it great or be it small — not purely of a functional character 
(and it is questionable how far even this class of^morbid 
action mav not be so) — involves a disturbance of the indi- 
vidual molecular energy ; and to just the extent of diseased 
structural action, is the extent of departure from the normal 
molecular constitution. Hence, all morbid movements have 
this precise signification. 

The Energic Nerve-Circles. 

Let us consider what appears to be another fact. Every 
atom of the body is mapped out, so to speak, by its nervous 
energy, which it directly or indirectly receives from a special 



144 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

centre of nerve force. This is arranged upon the plan of a 
general grouping of particular parts, receiving energy from 
the same centre: or, in other language, every portion of 
the body is traversed by currents of vital energy, which 
give to each integral part of the economy, a magnetic me- 
ridian — if it be permissible to borrow an expression from 
the nomenclature, and an illustration from the domain, of 
pure physics — all of which currents are subordinate to, 
and regulated by, a special centre of the nervous-axis, from 
which particular functions are derived. 

Energic Groupings. 

What may be the precise plan of this groupings whether 
relating to function or structure, or both, we do not know; 
but the facts of physiology demonstrate its verity beyond a 
doubt. Hence it results, that specific causes operating 
against the integrity of the system, are imrnediately oper- 
ative within the limits of the energic nerve-circle above 
spoken of. A little reflection must also demonstrate the 
truth of this proposition. Consider the modus operandi of 
medicines for a moment. The precise energy involved in 
the constitution of a molecule of croton oil, will carry its 
effects straight to that centre which presides over the nerv- 
ous supply of the bowels ; and a few drops, only, produce 
irritation, griping or purging, and frequently all of them ; 
and this, too, whether applied to the tongue or introduced 
into the stomach. Opium, whether placed under the skin, 
within the rectum or into the stomach, goes as soon as 
permitted by absorption, to the same portion of the nervous- 
axis, and produces its characteristic effects. A molecule of 
hydrocyanic acid represents an energy so potent, and its 
affinities lie toward a portion of the nervous-axis so ex- 
tremely vital, that it becomes, as is well known, one of the 
most deadly of poisons. 



HYPOTHESIS OF THE INFECTIOUS MOLECULE. 145 

Grouping of Morbid Actions. 

The same facts are taught us by the various morbid ac- 
tions of the body. Every such morbid action is susceptible 
of special classification, though as yet we have only learned 
to make classifications in a general way. We have observed, 
for instance, that a certain morbid process results in vari- 
ous symptoms, among which is a perfectly characteristic 
eruption upon the skin; and we call the disease involved 
in the process — small-pox. There is no accident about 
any of its features, however. The variola pustule is always 
one and the same thing, as are the accompanying symp- 
toms; and we should, indeed, be illogical, if we failed to 
infer from the facts, a precise and specific cause, acting 
upon a precise and specific part of the energic-axis, presid- 
ing over those involved in the variola movement. 

In the infectious diseases, we have a very forcible illus- 
tration in that curious affection, epidemic mumps, which in 
its progress may suddenly leave its original seat, and locate 
itself in certain parts of either the male or female repro- 
ductive system. We can only wonder as to the relation- 
ship between parts apparently so dissimilar: and yet, there 
is never a mischance about it; if metastasis occur, it is, 
invariably, to the same set of organs. A like principle is 
illustrated by erysipelas when transferred to the brain or 
puerperal uterus; as well as by rheumatism in its transmi- 
grations among the fibrous structures. In all these cases 
we have to deal primarily, not with swelled glands, diffuse 
tissue inflammations, or painful joints, but with the aber- 
rant energy, which suffers molecular disturbances at the 
circumference of the circle. 

It is a difficult thing in treating of subjects so vast and 
suggestive, to keep one's self within the narrow bounds pre- 



146 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

scribed for so small a volume as the present; and the mere 
statement in outline, of the foregoing views of vital force 
and structure, must serve to introduce what the writer 
believes to be, at least an approach to, the true theory of 
the infectious diseases. 

Poison-Centres. 

We cannot evade the conclusion, that certain morbid 
agencies, of whose intimate nature we have not the remot- 
est conception, may produce disease in the human system. 
Simple observation teaches us this; as also that certain 
diseases are produced very constantly in connection with 
certain influences. The most typical illustration we can 
adduce of this fact, lies in the often cited case of the mala- 
rial poison, which pathologists have designated as a miasm. 
Observation also shows us, that all of the infectious diseases 
proceed, directly or indirectly, from certain poison-centres, 
just as distinct as the poison-centres of malaria. There 
can be no dispute as to these facts. As before remarked, 
we may imagine the poison to be organic in nature, and to 
that extent may adopt a "living germ theory." If we 
could stop here, all were well; but unfortunately, we can- 
not. As man had an advent upon the earth, so the infec- 
tious diseases had an advent among men. General analo- 
gies, which have been briefly traced in these pages, teach 
us that man is the only organism of a truly cosmopolitan 
character, either in present or past existence; that descend- 
ing to particulars, as applied to our subject, as special forms 
of life are indigenous to special conditions, so disease- 
centres are sharply defined, and operate only within their 
own narrow limits. The malarial poison-centres are here 
adduced in illustration. 



HYPOTHESIS OF THE INFECTIOUS MOLECULE. 147 

How is Transportation Accomplished? 

From these reflections, it must be apparent, that the 
perplexing feature of the infectious diseases, is their trans- 
portable character. If a certain disease be the result of a 
local poison ; and that poison, itself, be not susceptible of 
transportation, either through the air, or by germ repro- 
duction in a diseased body, how can the disease be sown 
broadcast, away from its home ? 

It has been previously maintained, that every purely non- 
functional disease-action, represents a molecular change of 
structure. Though it is now claimed that a pus-corpuscle 
is only a colorless " migrated blood-corpuscle," yet, if it be 
that, it is also, something more; it is a molecule altered 
in its atomic structure, either by metathetic action, or 
what is more probable, perhaps, by a rearrangement of the 
original atoms. This alteration, whatever consisting in, 
represents the specific energic-action by which it is brought 
about ; and the atomic constitution of the molecule, under 
general physical as well as vital laws, disposes it to alter, in 
conformity with its oivn energic character, any other molecule 
brought with niits influence. It may be roughly likened to 
a magnet, which polarizes all masses of iron in its own 
vicinity in accordance with its own polarity; or to the 
prime conductor of an electrical machine ; and as applied 
to fluids, it has a catalytic power capable of producing an 
action, which, whether we call it "fermentative" or what 
not, results in the same thing, viz: either a positive split- 
ting of the contiguous molecule, or an atomic rearrange- 
ment. 

The Inorganic Molecule. 

Just as a molecule of hydrocyanic acid represents in its 
atomic arrangement, the specific energy determining it, so 



148 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

a molecule of the virus of a mad animal represents the 
atomic construction imparted t© it by the force which called 
it into existence; just as a molecule of healthy structure 
possesses the atomic make-up required by the normal ener- 
gy which lies behind its creation, so a molecule resulting 
from diseased action represents the energic condition which 
evoked it ; and just as the cell of a " ferment " possesses an 
energic construction of its molecule, which represents the 
antecedent action giving it birth, and is therefore capable 
of imparting the action which must result in a progeny of 
similar molecules, so the molecule of a diseased action in 
the human body possesses that representative energic con- 
dition, capable of being imparted to contiguous molecules, 
of different structure. 

The Infectious Molecule. 

If these premises be admitted, then it is easy to recog- 
nize, as a result of the morbid movement involved in the 
separate infectious diseases, the birth of an infectious mole- 
cule, ivhicli shall be scrupulously representative in its atomic 
arrangement, of the parent movement ivhich evolved it. Up- 
on this basis, may be explained more or less satisfactorily, 
every phenomenon connected with these singular diseases 
and their peripatetic characters. 

In dealing with the healthy living molecule, we must 
remember that it is not a simple, inorganic construction, 
but one of great complexity, which character it holds just 
so long as it is subjected to the normal influences of its 
existence. But when disturbing conditions occur, involv- 
ing its energic relations, the whole molecule is changed. 
These conditions may involve a general or local excess of 
energic action, as in acute inflammation, which latter has 
for one of its results, that grouping of the atoms, which 



HYPOTHESIS OF THE INFECTIOUS MOLECULE. 149 

constitutes the pus-molecule ; or it may involve general or 
local deficiency of energic action, the extreme of which, is 
represented by molecular death as organized structure, and 
a return to the sphere of inorganic matter. 

The Pus-Molecule. 

The precise methods by whiqh alterations of the normal 
energy, either of general or local character, apart from those 
of structural change in the central nervous-axis, may be in- 
duced, will suggest themselves to the reader. There may 
be general depression of energy as the sequence of bad 
health-conditions; bad air; bad and insufficient food ; in- 
salubrious residence ; intemperate living, particularly as to 
certain stimulants, which, while accelerating motion and 
thereby temporarily exalting energy, are sure to result in 
subsequent depression. A familiar example of the part 
"energy" plays in altering molecular structure, is pre- 
sented to us in the household method of bringing " a gath- 
ering to a head," by the application of sustained heat. 
Upon simple physical principles, the excessive heat-energy 
imparts increased molecular motion in the part affected, 
which increased motion supplies the whole basis for atomic 
change; and the pus-molecule emerges from the crucible, 
in advance of the time otherwise required by the morbid 
action, destined to evolve it. The author may remark, en 
passant, that while he is not prepared to assert dogmat- 
ically, that the formation of pus can only ensue from accel- 
erated movement, he certainly entertains that belief. 

Atomic Arrangement and Isomerism. 

To Liebig belongs the credit of first recognizing the 
truth, that a particular grouping of atoms is capable of giv- 
ing form and character to a substance. Modern chemistry 



150 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

has confirmed this observation, and in those bodies called 
isomeric — the list of which seems constantly increasing — 
we have a convincing illustration how, for instance, sim- 
ple rearrangement of atoms may convert a molecule of liv- 
ing tissue into a molecule of pus. 

The modern chemist has been astonished to find that 
butyric acid and acetic ether, two widely different bodies 
in appearance, have precisely the same chemical formula, 
C 4 H 8 2 ; and he can only account for the circumstance 
upon the fact above stated, that the structure and character 
of a body depend wholly upon the particular form in which 
its atoms are arranged to make up the molecule. But there 
are other instances, which even more strongly represent the 
principle spoken of, and of these certain of the sugars may 
be cited. Some of these bodies have an identical atomic 
constitution, and by every visible feature, are precisely sim- 
ilar substances; and still, by the different directions in 
which they turn the plane of polarized light, we are brought 
face to face with the surprising fact, that in the ultimate 
molecule they have a different, though to us an inexplicable 
make-up. 

In the present state of our knowledge, we can only ac- 
count for these phenomena upon the principle above 
alluded to, viz : that particular groupings of the same atoms 
will produce entirely different compounds. This grouping, 
of necessity, relates to the polarity of the atom; and polar- 
ity simply represents a certain form of energy. In case of 
the inorganic atom, the polarity is derived directly from the 
primitive essence or energy of nature ; in case of the vital 
atom, indirectly through the vital energy which immedi- 
ately presides over it; and which imparts to it what in 
these pages has been designated as its vital polarity or vital 
chemism. It seems to the author, as though the logic of 
the facts, admits but this single conclusion. 



HYPOTHESIS OE THE INFECTIOUS MOLECULE. 151 

The infectious molecule, then, being a creature of en- 
ergic mutation, carries with it a representative polarity, 
which gives to it the infecting — shall we call it the fer- 
mentative — power; which power inheres to the molecule 
until other forces break it up or rearrange its atoms. 

All Diseases are Infectious. 

But, it may be asked, if this be the case, why is not 
every known disease infectious in character? To this it 
may be replied that, in a certain sense and within certain 
limits, undoubtedly it is so; though the ability to repro- 
duce a specific or type disease depends, probably, upon two 
circumstances. Firstly, the particular part of the central 
nerve-axis toward or upon which, the action of the infect- 
ing molecule lies. This has reference to the extent and 
importance of the " energic circles" presided over by that 
particular portion of the central axis, whereby a number of 
very important factors are involved ; as extent of disease, 
character of functions implicated, the plus or minus activ- 
ity of the morbid movement, which implies a greater or less 
energic potency, in determination of the particular atomic 
grouping of the molecule of the resulting disease-product 
Secondly, though perhaps to a vastly less degree, the par- 
ticular locality of the body, whereon the climax of the mor- 
bid movement is expressed; it being a peculiar circum- 
stance, that apart from the diseases produced by direct in- 
sertion of a specific virus (as that of rabies, of serpents, etc.), 
the aifections which fabricate a contagium upon the exter- 
nal surfaces of the body, including the respiratory passages, 
as the eruptive fevers, etc., are, as a rule, the most infec- 
tious; while those elaborated tuitJmi the body, or finding- 
outlet through the intestinal canal, are least so. This 
marked difference seems to relate to the facility with which 



152 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

the infectious molecule is given to the atmosphere ; that of 
small-pox, for example, being thrown directly upon the air, 
while that of cholera finds exit through the bowels, and if 
it escape decomposition in its outward passage, must sub- 
sequently be liberated from the liquids holding it in solu- 
tion, before it can mount the air and carry infection in its 
course. 

Dissecting Wounds. 

That all morbid processes, involving structural change, 
or the fabrication of disease-products, are inimical to the 
healthy organism, can be abundantly shown. It is well 
known to every medical man, that dissecting w T ounds are 
greatly more virulent in the very recent subject, while the 
cadaver more nearly represents the molecular constitution 
of the body at dissolution, than at a later period, when de- 
composition begins to resolve the complex molecule into 
simpler forms; and further, when putrefaction has fully 
set in, a dissecting wound has comparatively lost its dan- 
ger. These observations apply to the body of one dying 
from disease ; but in the case of an entirely healthy person 
suddenly killed by violence, as from a stab or pistol shot, a 
post-mortem wound has no specific effect. These are facts 
of significance in this connection. 

Transfer of Non-Specific Infection. 

Further: though in the nature of things, no directly- 
determining experiments can be made upon the healthy 
human subject, as to the noxious character of non-specific 
disease-products, yet the medical man frequently learns by 
experience, the effects of morbid matters upon his own per- 
son, as well as the dangers of conveying what may be 
termed non-specific infection, to others upon his instru- 
ments, etc. 



HYPOTHESIS OF THE INFECTIOUS MOLECULE. 153 

Action of the Infectious Molecule. 

To return, however, to the infectious molecule. What 
is its action upon the system — is it local or general ? It is 
both. Just as an organic cell placed in a solution of sugar 
imparts its own representative energy to the sugar molecule, 
whereby atomic disturbance is communicated to the con- 
tiguous molecule, which in its turn communicates the dis- 
turbance to the adjoining molecule until the whole mass 
participates in it, so the infectious molecule when intro- 
duced into the body begins that mysterious action, whereby 
molecule after molecule of similar structure is generated, 
until their numbers are sufficient to affect the nervous- 
axis in that portion, which presides over the activities con- 
cerned in the particular morbid movement; after which the 
type action is set up by the nervous centre itself, resulting 
in the general climax, whereby the specific contagium is 
fabricated anew. 

How this comes about in detail, cannot be determined 
until we know more of the intricate nature of the vital 
processes. When we are in position to comprehend in what 
manner, with the four elements, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen 
and hydrogen almost all the varied structures of the body 
are built up; how out of these elements, reconstructive 
plasm is fabricated ; how out of the same elements an inno- 
cent product upon the one hand, and a violently noxious 
one upon the other, is formed, we shall know — at least, 
greatly more than we do now. 

Transportation of the Molecule. 

The molecule of infection being possessed of a specific 
energy as representative of its atomic constitution or ar- 
rangement, is operative through whatever means of trans- 



154 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

portation it may find, until it is brought within the reach 
of agents, which decompose or resolve it into its elements. 
The energy pertaining to each variety of infectious mole- 
cule, varies in a degree which renders it more or less easy of 
destruction. The molecule of small-pox retains its com- 
position with surprising tenacity, while that of vaccinia 
rapidly loses its specific character. The molecule of cholera, 
finding a congenial nidus, will'retain its properties for a 
considerable time, when being suddenly eliminated, we are 
deluded into the belief of the possibility of a sporadic 
origin of that disease. And so with scarlatina and other 
diseases, which seem never to leave some of our large cities. 

It will be objected, doubtless, that theories resting upon 
others not yet demonstrated beyond dispute, must be purely 
speculative and insusceptible of any convincing proof. But 
it should be remembered, that many of the bases upon which 
the foregoing reasoning proceeds, are as absolutely fixed as 
the laws of the physical world, and the precise methods of 
chemical combination. The molecule is an established 
entity; and though lying far beyond the reach of human 
vision, it has been measured and weighed and found to pos- 
sess dimension and gravity. It appears, therefore, a rational 
course to attempt an explanation of the difficult problems 
relating to the human economy, upon the settled principles 
governing organic and inorganic existence. 

The whole subject is replete with fertility of suggestion, 
and furnishes inviting channels for a new departure in 
pathological research. The author regrets that he cannot 
pursue it further, consistently with the scope of the present 
volume. 



CHAPTEE VII. 

Generalizations From the Facts. 

The foregoing pages have shown certain facts relative 
to a complete or partial immunity, of particular portions of 
the south Pacific coast, from the general ravages of the acute 
infectious diseases. In connection with this fact, the pecu- 
liar physical conditions of the region have been dwelt upon ; 
and subsequently a line of reasoning was developed going 
to show, that the reproducing agents of the whole class are 
molecules, representing the constitution impressed upon 
them by the vital-energy involved in each particular morbid 
movement. 

The reader will draw his own inferences from the facts 
herein presented. Many illustrations in support of the 
particular views relating to the aetiology of the diseases, 
have been advanced, which must be taken for what they 
are worth; but to the writer it appears certain, that just as 
a thunder-storm in our northern regions will temporarily 
mitigate an epidemic visitation ; that just as the same influ- 
ence is sufficiently powerful to split up the molecule of sugar 
in an animal fluid, so the peculiar electric energy of the 
region under consideration, operates to decompose the infec- 
tious molecule of exotic diseases, and prevent their develop- 
ment. 

If there be any to doubt the potent agency of the elec- 
tric energy in the production of molecular change, let them 
consider for a moment the illustration heretofore offered in 
these pages, concerning the influence of electricity upon 



156 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

fresh milk. Entirely sweet and recent milk suffers almost 
immediate decomposition of the sugar molecule, during a 
thunder-storm, with a subsequent coagulation of casein 
from the development of lactic acid. This result transpires 
while the milk is entirely protected from the air external to 
the dwelling; and also, when it is placed within closets, 
ice-boxes or cellars. 

This is a very remarkable — and so far as the authors 
knowledge extends — an unnoticed fact, as related to the 
subjects now engaging our attention. It furnishes a con- 
vincing illustration of many of the principles insisted upon 
in this work ; and particularly exemplifies the truth of the 
statement above made, that conditions of peculiar energy 
are competent to decompose an exotic molecule of infection. 

As a summing up of all the preceding statement of facts 
and arguments, the author believes that we are justified in 
the following generalizations, as to the acute infectious 
diseases. 

First. That each one of the class possesses an original 
habitat or indigenous locality. 

Second. Then when one of the type is developed in a 
locality foreign to the disease, it occurs from a transporta- 
tion, not of the original cause, but of the representative 
results of the disease. 

Third. That the original producing agent may be of 
animal or vegetable character, coming immediately from 
animalcular or micro-phytic forms, or directly or indirectly 
from the lower animal creation ; and it would appear not 
impossible, that a contagium of specific character might be 
wholly inorganic in constitution. 

Fourth. That the contagium of a type-disease in man, 
does not consist of vegetable germs, but is a product of a 
preceding type-action, and is representative of that action 



GENERALIZATIONS FROM THE FACTS. 157 

in its atomic construction ; and possesses the property, 
under vital and physical laws, of inducing the typical action 
in a healthy system. 

Fifth. That atmospheric aridity to the extent existing 
upon the south Pacific coast does not destroy phyto-germ 
life; and hence, cannot be the cause of the exemption of 
that coast from the acute infectious diseases; nor can it be 
said to decompose either animal or vegetable germs; but 
upon the contrary, is rather preservative of them. 

Sixth. That violent electric energy, as an agent power- 
fully operative in inducing energic transmutation, directly 
decomposes the infectious molecule by chemical rearrange- 
ment or breaking up of its atoms. 



PART V. 

THERAPEUTICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 



CHAPTER I. 

General Measures. 

It forms no part of the purpose of this small volume, to 
reiterate the remedial measures now considered appropriate 
in the treatment of the various diseases classed under the 
head of acute infectious; such measures are fully dwelt 
upon in the text-books of medicine. But in following out 
the line of reasoning developed in the preceding pages, the 
attempt may not inappropriately be made to connect cause, 
effect and remedy by such lines of inference as positive- 
deduction, and the unstrained logic of the facts will per- 
mit; and thus, while not advancing directly toward specific 
medication, we may be aided in the attempt to unravel the 
mysteries of aetiology, so important as an" antecedent to 
successful therapeutics. 

The modern physician has learned to treat these diseases 
largely upon general principles of hygiene, including clean- 
liness with disinfection, thorough ventilation, and isolation. 
Beyond general principles, however, he has no list of specific 
remedies. It is possible, and perhaps probable, that time 
will develop remedies as specifically potent, at least, against 
the causative agencies of small-pox, scarlatina, cholera, etc., 
as is quinine against that which lies behind the malarial 



GENERAL MEASURES. 159 

affections. At present, we have a few substantial lines 
upon which to base a general defense, in behalf of the com- 
mon welfare. 

Organic Germs. 

Nature teems with the germs of organic life, which only 
await the requisite physical conditions, for development 
into their representative types. Unfortunately, we have no 
accurate knowledge connecting these multitudinous forms 
with the precise conditions under which they live; nor can 
we positively declare that the low forms of micro-vegetable 
life, which are supposed capable of producing disease in the 
human being, are competent to exist in the typically pure 
atmosphere designed for the support of the higher forms of 
the animal creation. There are some significant facts, 
however, bearing upon the question; but without going 
into these at all, a few simple things maybe advantageously 
recalled in this connection. 

Oxygen in Health. 

A certain quantity of pure oxygen is an absolute essen- 
tial to human life. The extent to which our air may be 
charged with other gases, either acting as simple diluents, 
or inherently noxious in character, and still be capable of 
supporting life, is but a question of quantity with indi- 
vidual constitutions. From the florid health tinge of a 
well-ventilated residence, to the cadaverous hue of the 
dweller in the slums, there is, cceteris paribus, a sliding 
scale pretty closely related, without doubt, to an exact per- 
centage of oxygen gas. Further than this, it is equally 
certain, that a recession from the normal air-constitution 
through which a given volume of the atmosphere shows a 
diminished percentage of oxygen, is productive of myriad 
forms of microscopic life, which before were insusceptible 



160 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

of development. Hence, upon simple experience, we have 
learned in practice to "purify" and " disinfect" the various 
sources of noxious emanations; these terms simply imply- 
ing the destruction of those organic forms, and a prevention 
of their further development, which are in any sense, per- 
nicious to health ; as also the metamorphosis of noxious 
gases into more innocent compounds. 

Nature's Disinfectants. 

These are, chiefly, three in number, each dependent for 
its salutary properties upon the yielding up, or evolution of 
oxygen. These bodies are, the allotropic substance called 
ozone; the peroxide of hydrogen, or antozone as it has 
been called, and the nitrous acid, all three of which have 
a greater or less percentage in the normal atmosphere, ac- 
cording to the greater or less activity of those causes which 
produce them. The air of our planet, at ordinary levels, 
is seldom of an even approximately pure character; and in 
connection with the haunts of men, and particularly where 
aggregated in large communities, it is loaded with organic 
and inorganic impurities to so great an extent, that were it 
not for a wise ordering of nature, the present air-breathing 
animal might abandon the world to the amphibia of primi- 
tive ages. 

Nature's disinfecting processes, first, through wind- 
movements, which scatter and dilute impurities, and sec- 
ond, through positive chemical destruction, are carried on 
upon an immense scale. The potent form of energy, heat, 
with its twin-brother electricity, constitute chemical re- 
agents, which keep the cosmic laboratory in constant activ- 
ity — now in analysis ; now in synthesis ; now in metathesis. 
In all these stupendous operations, resulting in the benefit 
of man, we cannot fail to recognize the agency of a single 



GENERAL MEASURES. 161 

principle, about which so much has already been said in 
these pages — this being the body oxygen. Directly or in- 
directly, it stands our best friend; in its presence we live 
— in its recession we droop — in its absence we perish. 

The Stamping-oat Process, 

Hence, as before remarked, partly upon a scientific and 
partly upon an empirical basis, the physician combats the 
infectious diseases as a class, upon the general principles so 
hastily touched upon. These are cleanliness, isolation, 
ventilation and disinfection, which constitute the essential 
features of the "stamping-out" process; and which have 
rendered this class of maladies so greatly less destructive in 
our time than in the periods gone by. We hear no more of 
the terrible ravages formerly committed by them, except 
when breaking out in armies, or in localities insusceptible of 
the discipline necessitated by those preventive measures 
which we rear against the enemy as barriers, when attacking 
our large communities. Even in the case of a disease not 
falling under particular consideration in these pages, whose 
original virus is conveyed by personal contact; a disease 
which has figured most infamously in the history of the 
world, passing in varied forms from one generation to an- 
other, and leaving mental and physical degeneration in its 
trail, we witness a steady recession before the lights of 
modern advancement. To so great an extent has the gen- 
eral prevalence of this disease decreased, and especially 
among the more intelligent, who know the power of scru- 
pulous cleanliness and immediate disinfection, that he 
would not be considered a rash prophet, who might pre- 
dict the ultimate extinction among all intelligent peoples, 
of the disease-class produced by a venereal virus. 



162 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

Improved Health Rates. 

It would further seem, that the premature-mortality rate 
of the enlightened nations has appreciably decreased during 
the past quarter of a century; while it must be admitted 
by all who are in position to take an enlarged survey of the 
field, that w r ith our modern methods of investigation and 
constantly accumulating knowledge, results are promised, 
both in the prevention of disease-producing states and con- 
ditions, as well as in the treatment of actually established 
morbid action, more positive and more nearly approaching 
certainty, than the individual looking from the standpoint 
of twenty-five years ago would have deemed within the 
range of possibility. Whether or not the world's popula- 
tion in detail, is to receive the practical benefits of these 
results must be determined by the future. With the abil- 
ity to construct dwellings upon model health principles, 
comes not only the ability but the inclination to live lux- 
uriously; and it still seems manifest that the hard condi- § 
tions involved in the injunction, "live on sixpence a day 
and earn it," contribute less to the prosperity of the doctor 
than the dissipations, extravagances and criminalities of 
indolence and wealth. The individual who divided the 
people of the world into two great classes — those with 
more appetite than dinner, and those with more dinner 
than appetite — was more of a physician than he knew ; for 
in his saw he represented the extreme points of two distinct 
classes of disease-departure. He would have been still 
wiser, had he been able to follow the separated paths to 
their union in the common road, with a common ending. 



. CHAPTEK II. 

Special Measures. 

Notwithstanding the great obscurity surrounding 
the precise causes of the infectious diseases, some positive 
and unequivocal advances have been made within the last 
decade in their special treatment; which, however, may be 
said to represent in the local application, those general 
measures of prevention and management briefly described 
in the last chapter. The author does not mean to state 
that any single remedy has been found, which may be said 
to be specific, even in the sense in which quinine is sup- 
posed to be specific; but that a few agents have slowly 
accumulated which, as has before been stated in these pages, 
are probably represented in their ultimate effects by a single 
principle; which latter possesses a physical basis for its 
distinctive operation. 

It is unnecessary here to enumerate the particular reme- 
dies comprising the class above alluded to, or to restate 
the principles so fully discussed in the preceding parts of 
this volume. The author believes that from the present 
starting point, a new therapeutic departure must gradually 
take place. But we have some things to unlearn before we 
begin the work of learning others; and perhaps the first 
step necessary to be taken, relates to discarding the old as 
well as the present idea, that the infectious diseases as a class, 
are immediately caused by animal and vegetable organisms, 
which, gaining access to the system, multiply themselves, 
and in some mysterious manner evoke a specific-disease 
form. Then we should be in a position to realize that all 



164 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

of the low forms of existences arise from germs whose 
development is possible only, under certain peculiarities 
governing the general constitution of life and matter; that 
these peculiarities as a rule, are connected with the pro- 
cesses involved in organic decomposition, and that when 
the latter occurs the germ development takes place almost 
par consequence. Hence, the constant association of fungi, 
bacteria, et id omne genus, with the morbid processes of the 
human body involving active molecular decomposition. 

Let it here be understood, however, that the author does 
not deny, that low organisms produced from sources exter- 
nal to the body, may set up diseased action in the system; 
this he has admitted as the possible primitive causes of the 
infectious diseases; though he is of the opinion, that like 
the occult forms productive of the malarial affections, they 
are so minute in character as to lie far beyond the reach of 
any means we yet possess, to bring them within the field of 
vision. The statement made, principally goes against the 
reproducing agency, itself, which the author believes, must 
occur under the conditions previously set forth. 

Energy Determines Forms of Life. 

If it were true, that the original energy of nature, 
directly and indirectly determines the molecular consti- 
tution of all living forms; that man, as a simple, ideal 
illustration, constituting the highest form, stands for the 
plus or positive sign; and the very lowest of all organisms 
as the minus or negative sign, then as must be evident, 
the existence of either and all intermediate grades, is but a 
question of state, or condition. The whole animated world 
teems with instructive analogies upon this very point. But 
our conclusions are running in the inverse order; Jet us 
attempt to arrive at some practical application. 



SPECIAL MEASURES. 165 

Impress of the Contagium. 

An analysis of the symptoms of the acute infectious 
diseases seems to show very clearly, that, while the pro- 
ducing cause, or contagium obtains access to the system 
through the circulation, and at once begins its work of 
molecular disturbance, the general outbreak of the disease 
does not occur until the nervous system itself, becomes 
sufficiently impressed by the morbific influence; when the 
morbid movement constituting the particular disease begins 
within, and radiates from, the nervous system. 

As confirmation of this, let us consider the source and 
import of vomiting, so often preceding the development of 
the diseases, as a class, as well as of others, whose implica- 
tion of the nervous-axis is unquestioned; of convulsions; 
of headache; of general pain and aching in the back and 
limbs; of chills, so often witnessed as a purely nervous 
phenomenon disconnected with fever; of the thermal mani- 
festations attending the febrile movement; and lastly, of 
that remarkable phenomenon, periodicity. 

This latter feature, represented most remarkably by the 
malarious influence, shows itself in the periodical wear of 
the nervous-energy requiring recuperation by sleep; by 
various normal functions of cyclical character; in various 
diseases, and in the affections of the nervous-system called 
functional, represented by neuralgic disturbances, and 
which are always of more or less pronounced periodic 
character. Nor is any one likely to overlook, in the con- 
sideration of such a subject, the case of one M. Brachet, 
who, taking a bath at midnight in the Seine, had a regu- 
larly-recurrent fever, the periodicity of which was as marked 
as that attending the malarial impress. And these data 
suggest an inverse reasoning upon a line like the following: 



166 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

Whatever the influence which may cause malarial fevers, 
and as an extension of the subject of every varjety of peri- 
odic manifestation, it affects essentially, and more or less 
directly, the nervous-system ; which being the case, a basis, 
at least, exists for the belief, that those remedies which coun- 
teract periodicity are operative upon the nervous-system; 
and hence, quinine, in the sense of neutralizing the poison 
of malaria itself, is no specific at all. The effect of quinine 
in killing bacterial life out of the body, may be cited against 
such a supposition ; but to this it need only be replied, that 
many agents, as chromic, boracic, benzoic, salicylic and car- 
bolic acids have the same property to even a greater degree, 
and yet possess no antiperiodic virtues. 

The inference receives support, however, from the estab- 
lished therapeutic resources applicable to the whole class. 
A timely dose of opium, for example, will often arrest a 
paroxysm of ague ; as will also a stimulant, as of brandy or 
pepper, etc. ; and though more rarely, violent emotion, as 
of anger and fear, is often attended with the same result. 
More decisive still, in illustration, are those remedies which, 
while acting more slowly but no less certainly, are known 
to exert their effects, rather upon the nervous-system than 
upon the immediately-producing agent; such are arsenic, 
strychnine, nitric acid, and other remedies of the kind. 

Eliminative Remedies. 

As a closely-related subject there may be mentioned in 
this connection, the remedies for another of the infec- 
tious class, though embraced under the chronic list — 
the syphilitic disease. These remedies are directed to the 
" elimination of the poison " from the system, as though it 
were an intruder susceptible of bodily ejection. Nothing, 
as it seems to the author, can be more manifest, than that 



SPECIAL MEASURES. 167 

the disease, like many others, is one of condition, functional 
or structural ; and that our remedies can only be operative 
as against the morbid movement constituting the disease 
itself. As well might we go back to the old idea, which 
regarded heat as an entity capable of entering a body; or 
to the first popular conception of the telegraph which 
imagined letters actually sent over the wires, as to regard 
disease in any form as essentially composed of morbid mat- 
ters in the blood. Morbific matters there may have been 
primarily; but their impression has been made upon such 
parts as are susceptible to the impress; and the diseased 
movement consists of the consequences of the morbific im- 
print upon the previously healthy structures and functions. 
With the proper limitation, we can all agree upon the gen- 
eral proposition embraced in the words, snblata causa tolli- ■ 
ter effectusj but as a preliminary to removal, it seems quite 
necessary to first recognize the real nature of the cause. 

The Antiseptics. 

Within the past decade, more particularly, a class of 
remedies have been gradually accumulating, one well-set- 
tled property of which, among others, is the power to de- 
stroy, or prevent the development of "germ life"; and 
hand in hand with the appearance of the remedies men- 
tioned, has been the evolution of a new principle in thera- 
peutics, which has assumed the name of the "antiseptic 
treatment," Largely applied by Lister in external applica- 
tion to surgical cases, its use has likewise extended to the 
internal treatment of many diseases, and particularly to 
those of the infectious class. Much was hoped for, from 
the antiseptic principle in the latter direction, but it can 
scarcely be doubted, that the hope has been blasted by the 
experience. 



168 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

This result might have been anticipated by a more care- 
ful consideration of known facts. There can be no precise 
parallel between the action of antiseptics upon the surface 
of the body, and ivithin the stomach, and circulatory round. 
If a person suffer a wound upon the surfaces accessible to 
the atmosphere, molecular death of a portion of the injured 
structure being a necessary consequence, the development 
of aerial germs in connection therewith, extends the retro- 
grade results and prolongs the period of recovery. The 
action of antiseptics in these cases, is simply to prevent par- 
asitic involvement; and thus the normal processes are per- 
mitted to repair the injury without complication. The use 
of these remedies may be properly extended, as is done, to 
all exposed surfaces, as the mucous membrane of the w r hole 
respiratory tract ; and even to the stomach, in the arrest of 
fermentation, etc. Under this view, however, the action of 
antiseptics is not directly curative. 

But if the infectious diseases, as a class, really have, as 
claimed, their causation in bacterial development within 
the circulation, Ave could not reasonably expect any specific 
influence upon them, through antiseptics administered via 
stomachi. If a medicine be directly absorbed from the 
stomach into the circulation, it must encounter, primarily, 
the action of the digestive fluids, a greater or less flow of 
which, is provoked upon the introduction into the organ of 
even very small quantities of solid or liquid substances ; 
and secondarily, be subjected to the immediate influence of 
the blood itself, which, as containing some free principles, 
may at once impress a different chemical character upon it. 
If the medicine go the w T hole digestive round, as some medi- 
cines unquestionably do, it must mingle with the digestive 
juices, and still pass the liver and lungs as before, prior to 
entering the systemic circulation. In either case, unless 



SPECIAL MEASUKES. 169 

the article have a very fixed composition, it seems not at 
all probable, that its original chemical character is pre- 
served up to the point of infusion into the general circu- 
lation. 

Elementary substances, and the active principles of med- 
icines, which latter are very fixed in composition, enter the 
general blood-current, and may afterward be excreted by 
the natural channels ; but our imperfect knowledge does 
not enable us to decide the question, as to whether the 
vital chemistry does or does not ultimately work out a com- 
pound differing from the article as first introduced. 

The sulphate of morphia when taken into the stomach, 
in sufficient quantity, produces hypnotic effects, as it also 
does, when injected into the subcutaneous cellular tissue. 
In the first case, however, a greatly larger quantity is re- 
quired to produce the same effect or impression, than in 
the second case. This result is usually attributed to the 
fact, that the medicine as administered per injectio {via 
compendiaria), is directly absorbed, and thereby manifests 
its effect without the loss or waste which takes place per 
vice primes. This may be the proper explanation ; but there 
is a point involved in the question, which the author can- 
not believe settled. 

As an illustration of the principle above maintained, it 
may be mentioned, that Dr. Halford, of India, has found 
that carbolic acid will neutralize the virus of that deadly 
reptile, the cobra di capello outside of the human system ; 
but when administered to a patient after the poison has 
been introduced into his system, the agent is powerless for 
good. * 

The whole matter, however, may be disposed of by the 
statement that, so far as relates to the internal use of the 
antiseptics in the infectious diseases, the question seems 



170 PHYSICS OF the'intectious diseases. 

quite settled, through their demonstrated inability, in any 
form or combination, to prevent or cure these maladies. 

The Disinfectants. 

Is the conclusion of the whole matter, then, so lame and 
impotent, as to leave us no resources of a positive character 
with which to combat the acute diseases of this class ? Not 
precisely ; for outside of the many special remedies advised 
in the text-books, we may follow a line of procedure already 
marked out by others, though running abreast with the 
philosophy of these pages, and certainly capable of much 
greater extension, as different views of aetiology shall come 
into general recognition. 

In the treatment of individual cases, the general measures 
of prevention, summed up in the processes of disinfection, 
cleanliness, ventilation and isolation, are locally applied, so 
to speak, to the patient and his immediate surroundings. 
The observation of the author has taught him, however, 
that these measures in practice are not often sufficiently 
radical and persistent in character. A patient with scar- 
latina, for instance, should be isolated as rigidly as possible, 
while disinfection should extend to the surface of the body ; 
to the bedclothes and surroundings; to the excreta from 
the bladder, as well as from the bowels; to the attendant's 
hands and clothes, etc. 

And in connection with the subject of domiciliary dis- 
infection, attention may properly be called to the per- 
nicious influence of the modern water-closet, as now con- 
structed in all residences of any pretension. The system 
of trappage is exceedingly defective, while no provision 
whatever is ordinarily made for the escape of gases, which 
of necessity find vent into the house itself. If we add to 
this evil, the carelessness of at least one half the people in 



SPECIAL MEASURES. 171 

not permitting the water to run sufficiently long to flush 
the waste-pipe w r ith effectiveness, we can easily realize the 
great source of insalubrity which exists, like a skeleton, in 
every closet. 

In houses where the bath-room and closet are together, 
we have a most valuable means of disinfection which does 
not seem to be utilized. This may consist in having an 
adjustable hose to reach from the hot-water faucet of the 
bath to the basin, whereby a stream of very hot water 
evolving steam, may be turned into the closet and allowed 
to run for an hour or more, every day. All modern houses 
should be so constructed as to allow of the complete flush- 
ing of the closet with hot water; than which there is no 
more effective and available disinfectant. This provision, 
with a ventilating pipe for the escape of gases above the 
house-top, would greatly diminish the causes of disease, 
both of general and specific character. 

The air of a sick chamber should not only be diluted 
by the admission of fresh air, which in epidemic seasons 
likewise contains the contagium, but also purified by dis- 
infectants, artificially generated. For purposes of personal 
and local disinfection, the effective agents and their methods 
of use, are too well known to require mention in these 
pages. 

For atmospheric purification, no agent exceeds in power 
and effectiveness, nature's disinfectants, the artificial pro- 
duction of any of which, is quite within our ability. If 
the unmistakable drift of the author's logic have any force, 
the mere existence of an epidemic implies an abnormal 
state of the atmosphere, involving a minus condition of the 
general energy — an expression which will be permitted 
upon the score of representing an idea, if not a critically 
accurate fact. Hence, the simple admission of fresh air 



172 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

to a sick chamber, while it may and does dilute the aerial 
virus, cannot dissipate or entirely destroy it within the 
chamber. But a disinfectant proper to ill destroy it ; and 
the only obstacle to complete success, consists in our in- 
ability to apply the principle upon a scale of sufficient 
extent. If we cannot vanquish the enemy en masse, how- 
ever, we can cope with him in detail. Every hospital 
should be provided with a machine for the generation of 
ozone, and particularly every hospital where the infectious 
diseases are received for treatment. Private houses and 
chambers should be subjected to the influence of aerial 
disinfection by a machine, or by chemical mixtures through 
which ozone is evolved. The great want of the profes- 
sion in this direction, is a small and inexpensive ozone 
machine for family use; which, it is to be hoped, will ere 
long be supplied. In the absence of a machine, a very con- 
venient mixture for the generation of ozone is that recom- 
mended by Bottger, which consists in mixing very gradu- 
ally, and in an open vessel, three parts of strong sulphuric 
acid with two parts of potassium permanganate. This com- 
pound will evolve ozone for a considerable time, and can 
be used in various places about the house — the only 
precaution necessary in its use being, to keep it out of the 
reach of children, and away from flame, which may ignite it. 
In all this there is nothing new, however ; but as before 
remarked, we do not get the benefits from such measures 
which they are capable of yielding, because of the lack of 
system in their application, and of efficiency in carrying 
them out. 

Supporting Remedies and Measures. 

As to the more special measures, one general principle 
cannot be too constantly borne in mind and acted upon, 
viz: that every morbid movement involving functional 



SPECIAL MEASURES. 173 

activity, necessarily implies severe drain and rapid trans- 
mutation of energy, and as a consequence, a more or less 
rapid and exhausting molecular decomposition. Hence, 
the necessity of supplying fuel which may sustain the sys- 
tem under the destructive waste of these processes ; or at 
least until their force is spent, and the reconstructive effort 
be fairly established. "With this view, the resources of 
nutritive upbuilding should be taxed to the uttermost con- 
sistently with special conditions; and particularly is this 
injunction applicable to that class of the infectious dis- 
eases, whose symptoms and results do not vanish with the 
original disease ; those, in other words, which leave a train 
of morbific sequelae behind them. 

The tendency of many of the diseases of this class to 
depart from a purely functional character, either by special 
drift toward parenchymatous involvement, or as legitimate 
consequences of the antecedent morbid movement, and to 
work structural changes in particular organs, or in the 
nervous-axis itself, constitutes their chief danger, in those 
subjects not overwhelmed at once, by the intensity of the 
primary onslaught. 

The nervous-axis is of organic construction, and while 
furnishing the principle of life which animates all other 
portions of the body, is itself, subject to the changes which 
disease may bring about in the organic molecule. Hence, 
it is not in any sense, exempt from the congestions, inflam- 
mations, etc., with their subsequent products and altera- 
tions of structure, which may attack any organ, or portion 
of the body. When such structural alterations, or tissue- 
destructions, occur in the nervous-axis, whether from the 
infectious or any other diseases, it is needless to say, that 
the result is as unfortunate as irreparable, and limited in 
consequences only, by the extent and importance of the 
8* 



174 PHYSICS OP THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

spoiled part. A man may lose an eye or an ear; a lung or 
a kidney; an arm or a leg; and subsequently enjoy perfect 
health, and perhaps an unabridged term of life. But when 
the structural integrity of that wondrous piece of the human 
mechanism, which is at once the mainspring and general 
cogwheel, by and upon which all the others turn, becomes 
impaired, the extent of disarrangement to the whole ma- 
chine, can only be measured by the extent and importance 
of the missing parts. A single note may be dropped from 
the many voices of life's chorus ; or the discord may be so 
intolerable as to convert the soft melody into a despairing 
wail. Compensation of function through symmetry of 
anatomical parts may take place, perhaps, as is claimed by 
some physiologists; but it can only be within the most re- 
stricted limits. Hence, while we may reasonably hope to 
overcome functional aberration by the resources of art, we 
can no more expect to replace the spoiled mechanism of an 
organ which not only feeds and upbuilds all other organs, 
but also, supplies the. conditions of its own perpetuation, 
than we can assume an ability to construct that marvelous 
organ de novo. 

In the management of the infectious diseases, then, there 
is a wide field for effort in the direction of limiting the 
morbid movement, to the mere involvement of function ; 
and of preserving structure itself intact, throughout the 
uncertain struggle with the disease. This effort will con- 
sist, at one time, in repressing activity of movement; and 
at another, in obviating the tendency to undue depression. 
Particular remedies for both indications, form important 
desiderata in the therapeutics of these diseases. 

Nervous Calmatives and Belladonna. 
In the matter of strict medication, too, there are a num- 



SPECIAL MEASURES. 175 

ber of collateral indications to be fulfilled ; for the accom- 
plishment of which, many remedies are generally relied upon 
by the profession. Of these, the class which allay nervous 
excitement and irritability, and which are thereby conserv- 
ative of the vital energy, should hold a prominent place. 

The claim has been largely made, that in belladonna we 
have, not alone a prophylactic against scarlatina, but a 
remedy capable of curing the established disease. Unfor- 
tunately for the interests of humanity, experience has ren- 
dered a decision against the validity of this claim, but the 
undoubtedly good effects of the remedy, in controlling cer- 
tain symptoms through its peculiar impress upon the 
nervous centres, leads to the hope, that an agent of the 
class to which it belongs may yet be found, whose virtues 
may be more pronounced in both character and extent. 

Dr. Bartholow, in his classical work upon Materia Med- 
ica and Therapeutics, urges the value of aconite in cer- 
tain stages of the eruptive fevers, especially in scarlatina, 
and the writer can fully indorse his views. Dr. B. places 
this article under the head of Motor-Depressants, to which 
class it certainly belongs. Under our present imperfect 
knowledge, both of the physiology of innervation and the 
modus operandi of medicines, we can form no rational 
opinions as to the real nature of the primary impress of 
those agents, which affect the nervous system in a manner 
so pronounced. The author believes, however, that they 
are capable of more extended usefulness than has gen- 
erally been accorded to them ; not as specifics in the proper 
sense, but as counter-actives to the morbid movement in- 
volved in the particular disease under treatment. 

The Iron Sheet- Anchor. 
At some particular stage of all the diseases, which, by 



176 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

failure to run a mild and rapid course, do not leave the 
natural powers in that unimpaired condition insuring a 
speedy rebound to typical health, it becomes necessary to 
administer a remedy, which, of all others, is worthy of 
being called a sheet-anchor. This remedy is iron. The 
purpose for which it is commonly given is " to make red 
blood-globules," and that it does so is true enough, though 
the precise reason why the making of red blood-globules, 
should conduce to the especial benefit of the patient, is not 
generally recognized, perhaps. We have an indefinite ex- 
pression which classes iron as a tonic, but ivhy is it tonic ? 
The author will, presently, attempt an answer to the ques- 
tion. 

Possibilities as to the Future. 

Is the idea running through these pages, from which it 
appears that the mere animal life is but the representative 
of a principle, which we know to underlie the mighty se- 
crets of cosmic order and existence, founded upon reality, 
or is it a theoretical abstraction ? To him, who stepping 
out of the furrow of exclusive thought, grasps, so far as the 
finite mind may grasp, the great facts of the Creative 
plan, there can be but one answer. 

What the future may bring forth we know not. We 
have but one potential fact upon which to base an estimate 
of its possibilities — a retrospect of the past. The abstract 
conception of general force antedates the philosophy of our 
d^y; but almost to our own century belongs the bold act 
of calling the invisible slave of the lamp to our service, and 
harnessing him to the car of modern progress. We call 
him from the immeasurable leagues of space; we clothe 
him in the garb of motion to serve our purposes ; at a pass 
of the wand, we metamorphose him into heat, when he 
works at the factory, the loom and the forge ; at another 



SPECIAL MEASUKES. 177 

pass, he illuminates the darkness and supplements the sun ; 
at another, he becomes the swift-winged Mercury, and car- 
ries his messages with the rapidity of thought ; and at still 
another, we lay him upon a shelf, and bid him there remain 
until we further need him. 

In full view of these facts, then, is it a wild dream, that 
to him who is vested with such magic powers, there must 
come, soon or late, a knowledge of the general mechanism, 
at least, of his own physical existence; and with that 
knowledge, the craft necessary to keep its wheels in motion 
and repair, until the climax arrives fixed upon by the 
Great Artificer, as the signal for their final stoppage ? 

Oxygen as a Remedy. 

If oxygen as a principle of the higher organic world, 
have the important agency in the phenomena of animal life 
herein attributed to it, surely it should be susceptible of 
some therapeutic application, even if indirect and limited 
to certain maladies involving the central energic-axis of the 
system. 

One of the modifications of general energy — the electric — 
has, within a few years, come into extended therapeutic use; 
and properly applied is, without question, capable of most 
potent service in the treatment of various ills; though 
as yet the subject of electro-therapeutics is as much in its 
infancy, as was the first rude telegraph constructed by 
Morse with double wires ; and doubtless the electro-thera- 
peutist of to-day would be as much astonished at what the 
next half century may develop in his field, as would the 
inventor of the telegraph to know, that not only are mes- 
sages sent upon a single wire, but that as many as four are 
transmitted at one and the same time. 

As a means, in addition to those already mentioned, of 



178 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

recognized usefulness in the direction, not only of uphold- 
ing the energic power, but also of interposing a hand in the 
molecular changes going on, is there any possible channel 
through which we may attempt an application of the prin- 
ciples herein dwelt upon at such length ? If the body oxy- 
gen have the extensive relations which it appears to possess, 
is it practicable to utilize it, until some broader and perhaps 
deeper principle may be evolved through advancing sci- 
ence? The author believes that these questions are des- 
tined to occupy, extensively, the future attention of the 
medical philosopher and the therapeutist. What the ver- 
dict will be, the future alone can reveal. 

But there are, at least, two articles which experience — 
that great teacher — has demonstrated to be of signal utility 
in nearly the whole class of the acute infectious diseases; 
either from the first, or at a later stage of the individual 
maladies. These articles are moN and the chlorate of 
potassium — the former frequently in form of the muri- 
ated tincture, and more lately as prepared by dialysis; and 
the latter, in combination with it, or in separate dilution. 

What are the peculiar virtues of these remedies ? Curi- 
ously enough, they have direct relationship to the very 
question we are considering — the body oxygen. It is not 
necessary to go into details of method; but the broad fact 
is well established, that the effect, par excellence, of iron, is 
to increase the red-blood globules in number, which increase 
of oxygen carriers, necessarily implies an increased amount 
of oxijgen carried. 

Water as a Source of Oxygen. 

It has been elsewhere stated, that water contributes to 
the oxygen supply of the system. By this statement the 
author does not mean to assert that decomposition of 



SPECIAL MEASURES. 179 

that fluid takes place within the system. It is a familiar 
fact, however, that good, potable water contains a large 
percentage of free oxygen in solution ; or at least in such 
state as renders easy its appropriation by the system. Few 
things are so flat and insipid to the taste, as water deprived 
of its gaseous element by boiling. 

In the acute stages of fever, involving rapid motion and 
quick transmutation, the craving for water is one of the most 
prominent features. This craving, of course, is, in part, a 
natural demand of the system for fluid to supply the drain 
which begins immediately upon the accession of the febrile 
movement. Whatever theory we adopt, however, as to the 
production of animal heat, oxygen is the radical factor of the 
process. We may believe with Virchow, that the produc- 
tion of heat results from the increased amount of oxygen 
carried to the whole, or any part of the system, whereby 
" nutrition " is increased ; or, in other words, " combustion " 
is promoted. Or, we may adopt the views maintained in 
these pages, that a portion of the result, at least, is due 
to the immediate impress of oxygen upon the nervous cen- 
tres, whereby energy is evoked, resulting in motion, which 
latter is ultimately transmuted into heat; and if it be ab- 
normally rapid motion, into an abnormal heat. 

While he does not desire to go into a disquisition upon 
the intimate nature of fever at this time, yet it becomes 
necessary that the author remark in this connection, lest 
an apparent contradiction of opinion be here detected, that 
he does not regard the febrile movement itself, as constitut- 
ing essential disease, but rather a symjjtom of disease. 

But to return. Oxygen, under any view we may take of 
heat-production, is an absolute requisite. During the feb- 
rile movement, increased respiratory action affords an in- 
creased amount of oxygen to the system, to which increase 



180 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

water may contribute. This view seems strengthened by 
what the author believes to be a general fact, viz : that 
water which has been entirely deprived of its free gaseous 
constituents, does not satisfy the thirst of fever, as does or- 
dinary drinking water. 

When we reflect upon the imperious demand of the sys- 
tem for water in all rapid movements, normal as well as 
abnormal, which involve the excessive production of heat, 
and this, usually, before any great loss of fluid by trans- 
piration occurs, it seems that we cannot regard water, 
exclusively, as a mere diluent in the system ; but that we 
must also recognize in it a reserve store of a principle, which 
underlies the facts of heat and motion, whatever theory of 
the modus of production we may entertain. 

Why Iron is Tonic. 

Iron is an agent which is tonic, not because of any plas- 
mic material it directly supplies, but because it multiplies 
the agents tvhich carry the vivifying oxygen to the nervous- 
axis ; and in thus upbuilding the vital energy, upbuilds 
the whole series of nutritive and other functions over which 
that energy presides. 

The chlorate of potassium is an oxygen -yielding body — 
so loosely holding its combination, that it gives away its 
oxygen upon the least solicitation. The chemist finds in 
this article the readiest means of obtaining the gas; and in 
the animal system decomposition must readily occur — the 
liberation of oxygen being the prominent result. 

This, however, is denied by some, who base their opinion 
upon the declaration of Wohler, that he had obtained the 
salt in the urine of a patient, to whom it had been given, in 
an entirely unchanged state. It is to be regretted, that so 
many of the accepted facts of medicine are founded upon 



SPECIAL MEASURES. 181 

observations equally incomplete as this of Wohler. Even 
if the whole amount of the salt taken into the stomach 
had been fully accounted for, in a subsequently unaltered 
condition, the observation as a prime fact relating to the 
article, would be valueless without the corroboratory evi- 
dence of associated conditions. O'Shaughnessy and Stevens 
found that it imparts a bright arterial color to venous 
blood, though the former claims that it passes undecom- 
posed into the urine. A portion of it may do so, as observed 
by Wohler; but it can be only that portion in excess of the 
oxygen-capacity of the " carriers." The chemical facts per- 
taining to the composition of the salt, are too well estab- 
lished to be overthrown by observations of such imperfect 
•character. 

Experience, the safest of teachers, has demonstrated the 
efficiency of both these agents in many of the diseases we 
are now considering; and it may justly be claimed, that 
with quinine, they assume more nearly the character of 
specifics, than any of the multitudinous remedies still in 
therapeutic vogue. It must be confessed, however, that 
we have stumbled upon their use, rather than reached it 
by any precedent reasoning. There are some other reme- 
dies, too, standing in much the same position, though their 
acceptance has not become so general; and hence their 
efficacy is not so w T ell attested. These are remedies which 
carry oxygen in the alio tropic form, directly to the system. 

The Ozoniferous Ethers. 

The bodies so termed, absorb oxygen by direct exposure 
to the light and air, and yield it up readily to the system. 
They w T ere first brought to the attention of the profession 
by Dr. Eichardson, of London, more particularly as disin- 
fectants. They are very useful for purposes of personal 
9 



182 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

.disinfection ; and hands, body and clothes may be sprinkled 
or sprayed with them. Their efficacy as internal remedies, 
should have a more extended trial. 

The inflammability of the ethers should not be forgotten, 
and care must be exercised to prevent ignition. 

The Terpines. 

This is another class of agents, which the author believes 
capable of great usefulness. By exposure to the air, they 
absorb oxygen freely, which during the subsequent chemical 
changes, whereby resin is produced, is converted into ozone; 
and this latter is readily given up to the system upon inter- 
nal administration. They are emphatically "ozone-car- 
riers." 

The terpines are volatile oils, and are obtained from 
plants of the coniferous and aurantiaceous orders. In the 
class are embraced the ordinary oil of turpentine, repre- 
senting the first order, and the following, representing the 
second, and being isomeric with the oil of turpentine : lemon 
oil; oil of the rind of sweet orange; of the lime; of the 
sweet lemon ; citron; cinnamon; bergamot, etc. The neu- 
tral oil of gaultheria and light oil of cloves, are also isomeric 
with the oil of turpentine, and both contain salicylic acid. 

The oil of turpentine is the most available of the list for 
medicinal use, and has been administered to some extent; 
particularly in those diseases of the infectious class, whose 
expression lies upon the mucous membranes of the lungs 
and intestines. As an oxygen-carrier, the author has to 
suggest its preparation by direct treatment with, either ozone 
or oxygen gas, instead of by simple exposure to the air. 

Ozonized Charcoal. 
Seasoning from a similar basis, it seems possible to find 



SPECIAL MEASURES. 183 

means of conveying the oxygen principle to the system, 
so as to comply with those, at present, unknown conditions 
of utilization which, it is to be hoped, the lapse of time and 
course of experiment may teach us. Charcoal, through its 
well-known power to absorb gases, might be made available 
as an oxygen-carrier, though, as yet, no trial for this pur- 
pose has been made. The author would suggest that vege- 
table charcoal, as of willow or box-wood, directly treated 
with ozone gas, be given a trial in proper cases. It would 
be first necessary to expose the charcoal to a moderate heat, 
in order to expel all moisture or other gases, before treating 
it with the ozone. In this form, charcoal should have a 
beneficial influence also, in the intestinal diseases of chil- 
dren and adults. 

Oxygenized Water. 

Dr. Richardson, of London, has also advised the use of 
a solution of the peroxide of hydrogen, or oxygenized water. 
It is a deutoxide of hydrogen, with an additional equiva- 
lent of free oxygen. His recommendations do not particu- 
larly extend its use to the infectious class of diseases, but 
doubtless, it has a chief value in that direction. It should 
receive extended trial. 

The mode of preparation is simple; one method for 
which may be found in the last (14th) edition of the United 
States Dispensatory. 

Oxygen by Inhalation. 

Oxygen may be introduced into the lungs by cautious 
inhalation, with much advantage, in nearly the whole class 
of the acute infectious diseases. In both scarlatina and 
smallpox, the author has seen the disease apparently aborted, 
by the direct inhalation of the gas. In diphtheria, the gas 



184 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

may be projected upon the false membrane, in the form of 
a jet or spray, from a bag fitted with an appropriate nozzle. 
The effect is sometimes to melt away the former, leaving a 
healthy surface underneath; oxygen and iron being at the 
same time supplied to the general system. The author has 
also seen two cases of membranous croup, of an apparently 
desperate character, get well under the repeated inhalation 
of the gas. 

In a case of tetanus, in which the gas was administered 
by inhalation, the result was most striking; the spasm 
ceased in a short time, and upon the return, a few hours 
later, again ceased upon the reinhalation of the gas ; after 
which the patient made a good recovery, in connection with 
other remedies of a general character. 

The writer, also, had an opportunity, upon one occasion, 
to administer the gas in a case of post-partum convulsions, 
with a successful result. 

In all cases of septicaemic poisoning, the remedy should, 
and doubtless will, by experience, be found to be one of the 
most valuable agents in the w 7 hole list at our command. 

Care must be exercised in its administration, and its use 
suspended upon the accession of vertigo, or other symptoms 
manifestly caused by the agent. Care should also be taken 
to admit a due quantity of atmospheric air to the lungs, 
while it is being given. 

The Princiirte Involved. 

If it be understood that the w T hole recommendation of 
the author, runs in the direction of finding the readiest 
means of flooding the system with oxygen gas, in an empir- 
ical and indiscriminate manner, then, indeed, has a great 
part of his labor been in vain. This gas, like any other, is 
susceptible of being placed within the system in larger 



SPECIAL MEASURES. 185 

quantities than is possible through mere medicaments. It 
could be pumped into the stomach, and bowels, too, if sys- 
temic access were the simple object in view. 

We are not now dealing with it as an antiseptic and dis- 
infectant remedy \ r for both of these purposes it may have a 
valuable internal use. But we are considering it in another 
aspect; and from all we know of the conditions through 
which the vital energy or force is evoked, we are bound to 
conclude, that as oxygen in a simple gaseous state is 
powerless of itself, to evoke the electric energy when placed 
in contact with the cells of a battery, so there is a method 
by which oxygen must reach the nervous-axis, in order that 
it may become the magic wand with which to call forth the 
Genius of Life. This method is linked to the red Mood- 
globules, which, whether they act as mere carriers of 
oxygen; whether they alter it in some unknown manner, 
or whether they contribute some unknown element, are, 
nevertheless, the only channel through which it can be 
made available for the support of vital energy. Hence, 
there must be a precise balance between the two elements; 
and oxygen is as useless to the system without the globules, 
as are the globules without the oxygen. 

Eefraining from further details as to particular remedies, 
which formed no part of the author's original purpose, it 
may be asserted pretty safely, that as the sum of our present 
experience in the specific therapeutics of the acute infec- 
tious diseases, (with the single exception of the malarial 
affections) we have established but one general and essen- 
tial principle, viz: to support and conserve the strength 
and energies of the patient, until the morbid movement de- 
clines by a sort of statute limitation. This we attempt 
rationally, by contributing to the nutritive functions; and, 
empirically, by the administration of remedies, w T hich di- 



186 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

rectly or indirectly result in the normal addition of oxygen 
to the general system. Iron to maintain or increase the 
number of oxygen-carriers; and the administration of arti- 
cles which supply the thing to be carried, hedge in the 
narrow boundaries of "specific" effort. 



PART VL 

THE QUESTION OF ENERGY AS RELATED TO GENERAL 

DISORDERS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Brief Retrospect of the Subject. 

The preceding pages have been devoted to the consider- 
ation of a particular class of diseases, and the facts as well 
as arguments heretofore set forth, have had for a principal 
object, the elucidation of the questions more xlirectly bear- 
ing upon the aetiology of those affections. In their consid- 
eration the author has brought to the stand, such evidence 
as might be furnished by the varied circumstances which 
have been so hastily, and perhaps too briefly, passed in re- 
view ; and to the end that every possible light might be 
thrown into the almost impenetrable darkness enveloping 
the subject under study, the domains of the natural sci- 
ences have been invaded, and the testimony they are capable 
of yielding has been earnestly solicited. Whether or not 
the conclusions which have been arrived at, are logically 
deducible from the premises, is a question to be decided by 
the future. The author is fully impressed with the potency 
of one fact, however; that in the discussion of that incom- 
prehensible power or agency which presides with the abso- 
luteness of a dictator over the realm of life, he has touched 
a subject, not only intimate in its relations with the class of 
diseases herein especially treated, but also with a much 
larger proportion of the maladies of the human race than is 
generally realized. 



188 PHYSICS OF TH^ INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

Extension of the Subject. 

By this assertion he does not mean to say, simply, that 
we have fallen upon an era of nerves, and that all the class 
of functional disorders of the nervous system, have been 
greatly multiplied and augmented in severity. This would 
be but a portion of the truth, at best. What he wishes to 
convey is the fact, that many diseases involving change of 
organic structure in various parts of the system, have had 
their origin in a primary lesion of the nervous centres, 
either functional or structural in character. Hence, it 
seems an error to regard so many of the diseases which 
afflict mankind, in the light of distinct entities; while, 
manifestly, they but represent morbid conditions conse- 
quent upon a precedent derangement in the primary 
sources, upon which all action depends. As well might we 
consider dropsy in the aspect of a disease-entity, as make 
the attempt to erect a particular grouping of morbid ac- 
tions dependent upon remote causes, and followed by 
changes of structure and function in the organs second- 
arily affected, into a separate personality, characterized by 
a special name. A great poet has asked, "What is in a 
name ? " To which it may be replied : Though a name may 
have no especial import in connection with an odor, be it 
agreeable or otherwise, yet as considered in relation to the ills 
of the human body, it is a thing not to be lightly regarded. 
Names, as designative of diseases, have been productive of 
untold mischief; as through their agency medical char- 
latanry has been enabled to assume its present well-known 
proportions. The abolition of names would be a sad blow 
to the business prospects of those, who so successfully over- 
come coughs, catarrhs, liver complaints, bilious eruptions, 
dyspepsias, female weaknesses, etc. etc. 



CHAPTEE II. 

Essential Coksteuctiox of the Animal System. 

If the proposition, that man is only a " two-legged ani- 
mal without feathers," cannot be maintained in our day, 
yet his anatomical elements must be considered as essen- 
tially comprised of the brain and spinal cord. As has here- 
tofore been stated in these pages, the animal life resides 
within those structures, or, more properly speaking, within 
that structure; as the organ, while consisting of different 
divisions and parts, is, nevertheless, possessed of all the 
attributes of anatomical and physiological unity. All other 
parts of the body are accessory to its material preservation 
and well-being. The lungs and stomach furnish it fuel, 
the former supplying a principle closely related to the evo- 
lution of the vital energy, and the latter the crude elements 
for its structural maintenance and repair. The various se- 
cretory organs elaborate and prepare these crude elements 
destined to the office spoken of, retaining the needful and 
rejecting or eliminating the unnecessary and harmful. The 
heart and circulatory apparatus convey the prepared ele- 
ments to their varied destinations. A bony framework 
protects the organ from external injury, as it does also 
those organs accessory to its own preservation. It is sup- 
plied with a locomotory apparatus, through which it moves 
about ; defends and feeds itself. It has a special apparatus 
for the perception of other objects; a special apparatus 
which takes cognizance of sounds; another special arrange- 
ment for communication by language; all of these con- 



190 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

tributing, not only to the well-being and protection of this 
precious organism, but to the enjoyment of the principle it 
represents — the principle of Life. It has a special apparatus 
for the propagation of its species. It has other appliances 
directed to the main ends of its existence; but amid all 
these varied processes and movements, it is plain to be seen, 
that the animal life spins upon an axis represented by the 
brain and spinal cord; and above the music of all the little 
spheres which glide without discord through their varied 
orbits, we may recognize the voice of the directing principle, 
which reigns grand and peculiar, with firm but gentle finger 
upon the helm of life's microcosm. 

If there be poetry in these words, the scientific truth of 
the statements they embody, cannot be impaired by the 
manner of expression. The facts are most palpable ; and 
if our own period had done nothing more than recognize 
them, it would be justly entitled to distinction in the future 
annals of medicine. 

Prevalence of Nervous Diseases. 

It seems impossible, therefore, to deny the influence of 
an agency, which underlies the very base, and poises so 
delicately the column of life, in the production of diseased 
states, generally and particularly considered. This agency 
has long been recognized, to a partial extent, and " nervous 
disorders" are not a new revelation to the modern med- 
ical man. Whether diseases ensuing as a consequence of 
disordered innervation prevail to a greater extent in our 
own than in previous ages, is greatly to be doubted; though 
it appears quite certain, that in this day of mental strain 
and activity, we have developed a class of diseases, which 
may be said to be almost peculiar to excessive mental stimu- 
lation. During the age of muscle, as it might be termed, 



ESSENTIAL CONSTRUCTION. 191 

when the conditions of life were hard and subsistence pre- 
carious, there was a constant drain upon the vital energy 
in support of mere physical existence; and bad hygienic 
conditions and modes of living, with bad and inappropriate 
food, worked out their penalties no less surely than now, 
when the brain is driven like a slave at the galley, and the 
body is pampered with a thousand luxuries; reminding 
one of a race between western steamboats, with the engines 
fed by barrels of grease and oil, each contestant being 
bound to win or rush to destruction in the attempt. 

The Need of a Philosophy. 

We are entirely destitute of a philosophy in this epoch 
of advancement. We cultivate neither philosophy of mind, 
nor philosophy of living. If some of the ornamental branches 
taught in our schools were dispensed with, and professorships 
covering the whole philosophy of life were instituted in their 
stead, we should soon witness the advent of a generation, who 
would not only know how to make the best of life, but pro- 
long it to the utmost. As a nation we have many wants, 
which time must certainly supply, if not prevented by un- 
wise legislation. But as individuals, our most urgent need 
is a philosophy ; a philosophy of mind, a philosophy of morals, 
a philosophy of eating, and a philosophy of drinking. 

Influence of the Nervous Centres in Disease. 

There may be those who will deem the importance given 
in these pages, to the central nervous apparatus, as altogether 
exaggerated in practical results, if not in theoretical concep- 
tion. It is an intelligent method, to begin the considera- 
tion of every problem involving the agency of the reasoning 
powers, by resolving it into its simplest terms; by canceling 
superfluous factors, and excising every irrelevant branch. 



192 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

Such procedure is as applicable to the problems of medicine, 
as to any other line of inquiry. The author has made the 
attempt, in the preceding pages, to simplify to the greatest 
possible extent; the construction of the animal machine, to 
the end that a comprehension of its maladies might be ren- 
dered as easy as possible. He has said nothing of that 
higher essence, the mind; but has considered the purely 
animal life, as consisting of a material organ, acted upon 
by a principle, through which a certain form of energy is 
evolved ; this energy animating the whole machine, and 
through its agency all the varied processes being carried 
on. He has considered all other organs and parts which 
go to make up the body, as accessory, either to the healthful 
maintenance and preservation of this central organ, or to 
the pleasure and enjoyment of the temporary life which it 
inspires. The philosophy of our time is too broad to be 
shocked at the expression of such views; and if it were 
not, the fact which is embodied in their statement, is much 
too stubborn to be lightly waved aside ; and is only to be 
overcome by the development of other facts, which may 
divert the apparently logical consequence, to an entirely 
different conclusion. 

As a substantial truth, then, the physician must regard 
the machine which he professes to put in repair, as essen- 
tially composed of three fundamental parts: a structure 
tuhich is acted upon; a principle ivhich acts, and the prod- 
uct of the action itself. The first agent in the process, is 
materially palpable to our senses; the last two elude our 
vision and pass our comprehension. The material and the 
immaterial here meet upon a dividing line; and from the 
fixed standpoint of the one, we are enabled to look off, with 
wondering eyes and longing impulses, into the profound 
and mystical depths of the other. 



ESSENTIAL CONSTRUCTION. 193 

As a generalization from the preceding statements, all 
disease of the human system may be considered to involve, 
primarily or secondarily, immediately or remotely, the 
factors just mentioned. Under such a comprehensive 
view, of course, prime elements, and not the details of 
purely local phenomena, are taken into account. Mens 
sana in corpore sano is one of the trite expressions of medi- 
cine. An amendment which should declare, that a sound 
nervous system makes a sound body, would now come pretty 
near adoption, by the profession at large. 



CHAPTER III. 

Fukctiokal and Structural Divisions of Disease. 

Great advances have been made in the study of the 
structure and functions of the nervous system, within a 
comparatively recent period; and therapeutic principles 
have been developed thereby, which have greatly inured 
to the benefit of the afflicted. But the field is vast, the 
working difficult, and progress must necessarily be slow. 
As yet our whole knowledge of the subject, is of the most 
general character; and has scarcely descended to the details 
of the momentous questions, involved in its thorough 
understanding. As a starting point of diagnostic effort, 
however, it is convenient and usual, to attempt a dis- 
crimination between morbid action of a functional, and 
that of a structural character. Elsewhere in these pages 
the author has raised the question, as to how far persistent 
functional derangement may exist, apart from structural 
alteration in some portion of the system, which gives origin 
to the functional aberration. The term structural altera- 
tion, must here be construed in its broadest sense, as imply- 
ing an alteration of temporary or of permanent character. 
The blood, as an instance, may be altered in its structure 
by a deficiency of any of its constituents, as of the red 
globules; which deficiency, by appropriate means, maybe 
remedied, and the structural alteration made temporary in 
duration and in effect. Or, the nervous system may be 
altered in structure, by the deficiency of any of the elements 
which compose it. This result is often seen as a conse- 



DIVISIONS OF DISEASE. 195 

quence of the practice of "Bantingism," through which the 
nervous system is starved of its oily constituents, and the 
most aggravated "nervous symptoms" induced thereby; 
all of which latter may be removed, if the needful element 
be supplied before it be too late. Thus it is, too, that the 
first ill results of excessive nervous exhaustion are brought 
about, by the rapid change or consumption of those ele- 
ments, upon which nervous activity in part depends; as of 
the phosphorous compounds, etc. 

Now, just here, there is a point which involves some of 
the most important therapeutic consequences, in the whole 
range of medicine. It is the point, where the iron has pre- 
cisely the right temperature for being struck. A moment 
late, and the opportunity may be gone forever; and the 
remediable alteration of structure, may pass into the condi- 
tion of irredeemably spoiled texture. 

All motion in the universe implies change of state, and 
all activity, change of condition in the actors. This is no 
less true of the operations of organic bodies in general, than 
of any other forms of matter. The evolution and operation 
of energy in the human system, implies change of state 
upon the part of the material element, and hence there is a 
constant transformation of tissue, and an incessant demand 
for replacement or repair. Not only every act of voluntary 
motion, but also every act of intellection, involves meta- 
morphosis of tissue. Further than this, though an indi- 
vidual lie supinely upon his back, and exercise no act of 
voluntary motion, and even let the brain run completely 
fallow, yet the amount of energy evolved by his twenty in- 
spiratory acts, and seventy-five or eighty pulsations of the 
heart, per minute, to say nothing of the turning of all the 
little wheels of the economy, implies a change of structure, 
which latter, being unreplenished by the necessary fuel, 



196 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

would soon yield to the combustion and fly away in smoke, 
leaving scarcely a cinder behind. 

The Nervous Bankrupts. 

Unfortunately perhaps, but in any event certainly, there 
is a limit to the natural reconstructive supply; and if un- 
due demands are made upon the deposits of the bank, 
nervous bankruptcy, with all its entailments, is pretty sure 
to follow. Now the physician of our period has largely to 
do, in his daily labor, with the nervous bankrupts, both 
male and female ; and he is excitedly called upon for a loan 
of vital energy, to tide them over the crisis into which un- 
wise investments and extravagant speculation have plunged 
them. Whether they are to remain hopelessly insolvent, or 
once more become enabled to push their operations in the 
commodity health, must depend upon a number of circum- 
stances, chief among which are those involved in the in- 
quiry, as to whether the bankruptcy is functional or struct- 
ural in character. 

It is a remarkable and instructive fact, but one to which 
a little thought would naturally lead us, that the operation 
of the mental processes is marked by much greater activity 
of movement, and consequently by greater metamorphosis 
of tissue, than those in which simple mechanical motion is 
involved. A man may labor hard at some merely mechan- 
ical work, and not suffer a tithe of that exhaustion, which 
follows a much shorter period of brain effort, by the same 
individual. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Molecular Physiolooy of the Nervous Centres. 

The interpretation of the well-known fact just stated, is 
attempted npon various bases, one of which starts upon the 
line before intimated, viz : that mental effort involves 
greater activity of movement, and greater metamorphosis 
of tissue in consequence thereof, than those processes which 
involve mere mechanical motion. The author cannot be- 
lieve that this explanation covers the whole truth, if, in- 
deed, it covers any portion of it. If, with improved facili- 
ties for determining the minute make-up of objects, at 
present beyond the ken of the chemist and histologist 
alike, it shall hereafter be shown that each portion of the 
nervous-axis, endowed with distinct functional character- 
istics, has a distinctive chemical composition, or a distinctive 
molecular constitution, based upon atomic arrangement- 
many facts in reference to these mysterious processes, 
which are now so incomprehensible, will be rendered com- 
paratively easy of understanding. 

Indeed, it seems impossible to avoid the above conclu- 
sion, in the face of facts which are already so well estab- 
lished, as to be quite beyond the reach of successful contra- 
diction. If we admit that the influence resident within the 
nervous centres, is a form of energy, let it be called vital or 
by any other name, and that different portions of those 
centres preside over different functions; that here we have 
intellection and the highest acts of the mental processes; 
there, hearing; here, sight; there, taste; here, sensation; 



198 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

there, motion ; here a separate system presiding over nutri- 
tion, secretion, etc., then the conclusion follows as logically as 
that light makes day, and its absence, night, that the struct- 
ure from which this energy is evoked, varies in chemical or 
molecular constitution with the precise form of energy (shall 
we call it motion?), which is evolved by each particular 
function-centre. 

Whether this variation of constitution consists of a gen- 
uine difference in chemical composition, or is represented 
by differences of atomic arrangement, we know not. In 
the writer's view it is but a question of time, as to when the 
fact in general, if not in its details, shall be positively dem- 
onstrated. Let us ask the chemist to apply himself ear- 
nestly, to the solution of this question. Let him exhaust 
all the expedients of analysis; and if the nervous tissue 
elude the power of reagents, the microscope and the scales, 
let him aj)peal to the assistance of light and magnetism in 
accomplishment of qualitative, if he cannot reach quanti- 
tative, results. Would solutions of nervous substance be 
susceptible of circular polarization ; and if so, in what di- 
rection would the plane of polarization revolve, in the case 
of different portions of the nervous structure? Can a seg- 
ment of nervous tissue be made sufficiently transparent, to 
yield any results under the magnetic polarization of light, 
as discovered by Faraday ? 

Such expedients are mentioned only, as constituting pos- 
sible resources of value, in the determination of many ques- 
tions relating to organic composition in general. Let us 
invoke, then, every expedient of microscopy and chemical 
physics; let us call the sunbeam to our aid; let us borrow 
the armament of the laboratory, and illuminate the work 
with the electric spark. Out of all these means, there must 
certainly come an exact knowledge of minute structure, 



MOLECULAR PHYSIOLOGY. 199 

which, as yet, we do not possess ; a knowledge, which per- 
haps, may bring us face to face with what appears to be a 
great fact — the fact of distinct molecular characteristics, 
in different portions of the central nervous system. 

If we once settle upon such a conclusion, then we are 
drawn still a step further by the irresistible logic of the 
facts, and are compelled to recognize each one of the cell- 
elements of the central nervous system, as forming an inte- 
gral part of a cell-grouping, which gives origin to the form 
of energy inspiring each particular function of the econ- 
omy. Thus, each cell has its characteristic form of energy, 
just as every atom of matter in the universe has its form of 
energy ; and precisely as a molecule of matter represents in 
its energic or polar-form, the combined or aggregate po- 
larity of the atoms composing it, so the cell-grouping of 
the nervous system which presides over particular func- 
tions, represents in the totality, the individual cells consti- 
tuting the group. 

Aside from the necessity of drawing such conclusions 
from the established premises, general analogies sustain 
them in a striking manner; and it would seem, that as 
every atom of cosmic matter has a characteristic and resi- 
dent form of energy, which prompts it to unite chemically 
with some bodies, and to refuse union with others, so each 
atom making up a cell of the nervous structure, and each 
cell making up a group of cells, has a characteristic form 
of energy pertaining to it. The chemist, in dealing with 
matter, denominates this property, chemical affinity, and 
ascribes union to atomic polarity. We care nothing for 
names ; it is the fact we are seeking. 

The Condition of Insanity. 

Under such an interpretation, many of the diseases of 



200 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

the nervous system, whose causes are now hidden under 
the obscurity of present theories, would be susceptible of 
more rational solution. Especially would this be the case 
with that remarkable class of affections, which, with the 
force of the tempest, part the cables of the mind, and drift 
it from its moorings, into the waters of the unknown seas. 
Apart from the results following the accession of " acute" 
symptoms, the pathologist can find no structural change in 
the centres of thought, which may stand like finger-posts 
at the cross-roads, to point the path of danger. But it is 
impossible, quite impossible, that such aberrations from 
physiological function, as are presented by the unfortunates 
who fill the world's insane asylums, should exist apart from 
a structural change in the thing which is acted upon; or 
some inscrutable interruption to the agency of the thing 
which acts. Gases of complete, and perhaps sudden, recov- 
ery, will be cited' against such a supposition ; but if a supply 
of phosphorus and oil will often restore exhausted mental 
power, and the administration of iron will often replace the 
globular element of the blood, then we need be at no loss 
to explain an exceptional rebound from the anarchy, which 
follows the exit of an abdicated mind. 

Dr. T7nidichum's Analyses. 

This observer has recently made some highly interesting 
statements concerning the chemical constitution of the 
brain, from which, as having a bearing upon the subjects 
above discussed, the author may be permitted to make a 
short extract : 

Dr. Thudichum claims the brain to possess peculiarities 
in chemical composition which pertain to no other organ- 
ized structure. He says (Public Health Keports, New Se- 
ries, No. 3) : " It consists essentially of three groups of 



MOLECULAR PHYSIOLOGY. 201 

bodies. The members of one contain five elements, one of 
which is phosphorus, hence termed phosphorized bodies. 
The members of a second group contain four elements, 
amongst them nitrogen, but no phosphorus, hence termed 
nitrogenized bodies. The members of the third group con- 
tain only three elements, carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, 
present also in the other two groups, but no nitrogen or 
phosphorus. The phosphorized bodies are three — cepha- 
line, myeline, and lecythine. The first possesses a tendency 
to be oxydized, oxydizability. The myelines are not easily 
changed by any agent or influence, and possess, therefore, 
stability. The lecythines easily fall to pieces, they are 
afflicted with lability" After speaking at some length of 
the chemical behavior of these compounds and the physio- 
logical and pathological consequences thereof, Dr. T. con- 
tinues: "All these processes are necessary consequences of 
the affinities of the phosphorized substances, and these 
being known, the phenomena could be predicted, if they 
were not sufficiently known as phenomena, though hitherto 
destitute of an explanation. . . . These few examples show 
that the acquisition of chemical statics leads almost neces- 
sarily and very easily to mechanical dynamics of the brain, 
and these will in their turn furnish data for physiological 
and pathological conclusions/' Dr. T. also treats of the 
other principles; those of the nitrogenized and oxygenized 
classes, in a most interesting manner. 



CHAPTER V. 

Functional Consequences of Excessive Mental 
Activity. 

The logical effects of an excessive requisition upon the 
brain, for the evolution of the mental energy, through which 
the equilibrious adjustment between metamorphosis of tis- 
sue and replacement of structure by the normal processes 
of nutrition is disturbed, are presented to the physician 
every day, in the cases of those who represent, in varying 
degrees, brain exhaustion. The symptoms characterizing 
these cases, are of the most marked description. The gen- 
eral feeling of malaise, of weariness, of indisposition to 
exertion, of inability to make any bodily effort without 
prostration, incapacity to perform any mental labor, loss of 
the power of consecutive thought, indigestion, with its 
accompanying pains in the region of the heart, leading to 
a belief in existence of disease in that organ, increased 
respiratory movement, impaired sanguification, perversion 
of the moral faculties as evinced by peevishness, irritability, 
apprehension and gloom ; and finally, loss of memory, loss 
of sleep, and impairment, and perhaps total loss, of the 
sexual power; all go to make up a case not difficult to 
recognize as the legitimate offspring of our fast age, with 
a cracking of the timbers of the brain from violent use of 
the mental structure. 

When we meet a case presenting any or all of the symp- 
toms above mentioned, we invariably examine the various 
organs for structural alteration. The lungs are found to 
be all right; the heart all right; the stomach all right; 



FUNCTIONAL CONSEQUENCES. 203 

the kidneys all right; and we are happy in being able to 
assure the sufferer that his whole trouble is purely of a 
"functional " character; at which assurance he generally 
heaves a long-drawn sigh of relief. In giving such an 
assurance, the physician has no intention of deceiving the 
patient ; and in one sense, he does not deceive him. He has, 
truly, a functional disorder, but it depends upon a struc- 
tural change ; and the vital question with the patient is, as to 
whether the structural change be susceptible of remedyor not. 
Excessive activity implies excessive evolution of energy, 
which latter, in its turn, implies excessive metamorphosis 
— destruction is the usual word, but it is not the proper 
one — of tissue. JSTow, looking at the chemical constitution 
of the brain in health, while directing cessation of brain 
labor, we give the class of patients spoken of, phosphorus 
and oil, or food which contains them; iron, strychnia, per- 
haps, and possibly we may direct the use of electricity. We 
feed him on fish, oysters, unbolted bread and all sorts of 
prepared foods, looking chiefly to the phosphatic elements 
they contain. These measures may happily succeed in 
restoring structure, and bright-eyed health may come sing- 
ing back to the deserted mansion. Unfortunately, they do 
not always succeed, and positive morbid action induces a no 
less positive structural change ; when the lights go out, one 
by one, until darkness envelops the dwelling, and silence 
reigns, as profound, as that which, sooner or later, settles 
upon the once festive scenes of a banquet hall. 

Consequences to the Female System. 

In the foregoing remarks, we have been considering more 
especially our male patients ; but most unhappily, our female 
friends are in no wise exempt from the maladies springing 
from disordered innervation. From differences in habits 



204, PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

and occupation, and some marked differences of physical 
construction, the female is liable to aberrations of the nerv- 
ous energy, to a greater extent than the male, though in the 
large majority of cases, differing wholly in class or kind. 

The instances in which the female is called upon, to 
undergo the same mental strain and exhaustion as the 
male, in the competitive struggle for life's trinket-premi- 
ums, are not few to be sure; but both have an inscrutable 
peculiarity of nervous construction related to the circum- 
stance of sex, which neither the one nor the other, can 
evade or overcome. This circumstance creates differences, 
not only of general physique, but, also, of general nervous 
characteristics. The physician sees fewer women than 
men, with exhausted brains from mental overwork; but 
he sees more women than men, with general nervous ex- 
haustion, and as a consequence, with feeble vitality. Hyper- 
fecundation, hyperlactation, marital and maternal solici- 
tudes, overtaxing the emotional functions, overwork by 
the poor, and overindulgence by the rich, add fuel to a 
flame constantly struggling toward an outbreak. 

"Oh, doctor, can you not give me something to make 
me sleep ; will you not give me something for my back- 
ache ; can you not cure my headache, or give me something 
for this intolerable nausea?" "Why, the organs are all 
sound," says the doctor; "the uterus is all right, as to 
position, structure and function; everything is right" — 
save one thing; which latter will soon make everything 
else all wrong. If it were a mere break in the wires, the 
matter would be a short and a slight one; but the central 
apparatus itself, is uttering notes of warning, which bodes 
no end of trouble, if it cannot be reached by remedy. It 
"were fortunate indeed, if the morning of molecular pa- 
thology had fully dawned, in order that we might soon wit- 
ness the advent, of the day of molecular therapeutics. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Therapeutics of the Nervous Diseases. 

The author has no purpose to enter upon an extended 
discussion of the treatment of these diseases, of course, in a 
volume like the present. The literature of the subject is 
constantly increasing, and is already enriched by a large 
number of sterling works. Many remedies are in vogue, 
which cover some of the principles herein laid down. 
Phosphorus, oil, nutrients, etc., contribute to structural 
accretion and upbuilding; and thus far, thus good. In re- 
lation to female sufferers, Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, of Phila- 
delphia, has elaborated a system, which he interestingly 
describes in his little volume entitled " Fat and Blood, and 
How to Make Them/' the title of which, however, might, 
not inappropriately, be changed to that of "Nervous 
Structure and Vital Energy, and How to Supply Them/' 
The system is embraced under the following measures: 
" Seclusion, certain forms of diet, rest in bed, massage (or 
manipulation) and electricity." 

The philosophy of this treatment is admirable, and in 
many cases is, without doubt, conducive to the best results. 
Structure is added by the process, and the energy of food 
elements is likewise contributed to the restorative effort. 
Whatever good results may accrue from the hygienic regi- 
men and discipline of water-cure establishments, flow from 
the same general principles. 

But in these affections, as in those of the infectious dis- 
eases, the demand is for specifics. Some of the remedies, 
10 



206 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

indeed, with which we meet disorders of the nervous sys- 
tem, are specifics to a partial extent; specifics in the sense 
of supplying a deficient element of structure, to the thing 
" which is acted upon." In the effort to restore structure 
we are dealing with one of the fundamental parts of the 
machine, as defined in the preceding pages. There are two 
other factors, according to the author's view; one of these 
is a "principle which acts," and the other, the "product of 
the action itself." 

Suppose we succeed in fulfilling the first indication, by 
restoring to its typical state, the structure of the nervous 
centres. Does it follow as a necessary consequence, that 
the other parties to the contract, stand always ready to 
make good their own obligation in the case? It would 
certainly seem not. The^e is an agent concerned in the 
transaction, through which, as has heretofore been pointed 
out, the whole business is done; and if it be certain that 
particular operations of the nervous centres involve a meta- 
morphosis of the phosphatic and other compounds, it is just 
as certain that they involve the assistance of oxygen, 
through which to accomplish it. The method of these 
processes has been sufficiently dwelt upon in a previous 
portion of this volume, and need not be rehearsed, further 
than to say, that as this agent has a function to perform, 
which is linked with the red blood-globules, the " struct- 
ure" of the blood itself must correspond in typical integ- 
rity, with the organ representing the other element of the 
process. 

Now, one thing appears very plain : that if deficient 
structure of the nervous-axis, in whole or in part, exist to 
the extent of involving loss of function, then of necessity 
there must follow a proportionate decrease in the general 
supply of the oxygenating element or principle. And just 



FUNCTIONAL CONSEQUENCES. 20? 

as an organ shrinks in volume from lack of use, be the 
cause whatever it may, so a diminution of nervous function 
produces, in a mathematical ratio probably, a diminution 
of the oxygen- carriers of the blood. Hence, although we 
may be deceived by the general appearance of the subject, 
into a belief that the last-named element is in the normal 
proportion, the two morbid conditions go hand-in-hand, 
and are incapable of separation. All of these eminently 
vital processes are so interdependent, running, as the au- 
thor has elsewhere expressed it, in a circle without begin- 
ning or end, that it seems impossible to implicate one of 
the segments, without comprehending the whole chain of 
events. 

But there exists in the point just made, a fact of the 
greatest importance, in the therapeutics of all these dis- 
eases. If phosphorus and oil are essential, oxygen must go 
with them: and if the latter is to be sent on a message, 
iron must be dispatched as its carrier. 

It seems difficult to overestimate the influence of dis- 
orders of the central nervous-axis involving a disturbance 
of "energy," in the production and sustenance of other dis- 
eases. The fact is familiar to every practitioner, that 
"local" affections are often susceptible of cure, only, 
through " general " measures. This truth finds frequent and 
emphatic illustration in those rebellious affections of the 
uterus, which resist every local effort we may bring against 
them, and only yield under the conjoined effects of general 
and local treatment; as well as in those troublesome symp- 
toms, grouped together under the generic name, " dyspep- 
sia" which symptoms, in a large proportion of cases, result 
from a disordered innervation, and from no fault of the 
stomach itself. Such cases, after having stood out success- 
fully against the mineral acids, the vegetable bitters, 



208 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

strychnia, carbolic acid, pepsin, diastase, and the dozen or 
more combinations intended to relieve the stomach of any 
agency in the digestive process, will often get well as if by 
magic, under the effects of phosphide of zinc, and oil, with 
iron and chlorate of potassium administered upon alternate 
days. 

There seems reason for believing also, that many hyper- 
emias and passive congestions, both of the nervous centres, 
themselves, as well as of other organs, result primarily from 
a deficiency of the vital energy ; through which deficiency 
the vaso-motor system of nerves lose a portion of their tone, 
and the inhibitory function is thrown off its balance. If we 
are fortunate in being able to determine the real nature of 
such cases, we may relieve them by remedies and measures 
directed to the general upbuilding of the nervous power, 
not so quickly, to be sure, but as certainly, and more perma- 
nently, as the application of electricity to the cut end of 
the cervical sympathetic, will dispel the general blood stasis 
upon the side of the head, invariably produced by section of 
that nerve. 

The foregoing remarks, however, touching the thera- 
peutics of nervous diseases, embrace no suggestion as to 
remedies of a positive class or character; nor was it the in- 
tention of the author, that his running commentaries 
should have any other purpose, than that which might 
tend to develop a line of thought, through whose logic, 
others more fitted to the task than himself, could arrive at 
conclusions of positive and substantial value. 

The great demand of our suffering age is for the devel- 
opment of remedies or plans of medication and general 
management, which, beginning at the beginning, shall make 
an alliance with the very Oracle of the Temple; which 
shall contribute material structure, and supply " energy"; 



FUNCTIONAL CONSEQUENCES. 209 

not energy as meaning physical strength alone; but en- 
ergy as implying, at once, the subtle power and the deli- 
cate oil, through which the wheels of life's machinery 
move swiftly and without a jar. To him who may develop 
principles, which shall be potent to substitute strength for 
weariness ; to cast out pain and call back repose ; to beckon 
sleep, unmixed with the thick-coming fancies of the opi- 
ates, to the staring eyes ; to 

11 Raze out the written troubles of the brain. 
And with some sweet oblivious antidote 
Cleanse the stuffd bosom of that perilous stuff, 
Which weighs upon the heart," 

there will be erected a monument higher than the steeple 
of St. Paul's, and more enduring than the Pyramids, which, 
"doting with age, have forgotten the names of their found- 



CHAPTER VII. 

Conclusion. 

With these remarks, the author brings his book to a 
close. He could easily have amplified and swelled it, to 
double its present proportions ; and by greater elaboration 
have anticipated the objections, with which many of his 
views may be met. His present purpose, however, has par- 
taken largely of the suggestive character; and if he shall 
succeed in loosening any of the cords which tie so many of 
us down to a too strict vitalism on the one hand, and an 
ultra-chemismus on the other, whereby we may be enabled 
to enlarge our field of vision, one of his chief objects in 
writing these pages will have been accomplished. 

Slowly, perhaps, but surely, we are waking to the true 
basis of our physical being; and we are coming to under- 
stand, that the physician in his practice, has largely to do 
with the physical forces and agencies of nature. Old de- 
ductions founded upon false premises, are vanishing like a 
mist before the morning sun. But a few years since, we de- 
liberately robbed a sick man of the energy temporarily lent 
him by nature, for his terrestrial life ; the physician of the 
future will not only conserve that which the man hath, but 
see that more is given him. In dealing with fever, he will 
recognize a physical impetus behind it. In suppressing a 
hemorrhage, he will abandon the use of cold as a sedative 
and astringent, in a large class of cases, and resort to heat; 
whereby he elevates the local temperature excessively, and 
transmuting surplus heat into motion, produces contrac- 



ADDENDUM. 211 

tion of the muscular fibres of the bleeding vessel, and per- 
manently arrests the hemorrhage. 

And while he sits at the bedside of his patient, and 
makes an ideal estimate of the sick man's vital power in 
foot-pounds, there need be nothing in his theory or in his 
practice, to conflict with the hope and belief in an immortal 
spirit of the earthly tabernacle, whose essence is of the 
Great Unknown. 



ADDENDUM. 



Concerning the Source of Energy. 

In penning the foregoing pages, the author has en- 
deavored to keep the present volume within the limits 
which may best insure its careful perusal by the busy 
practitioner, while trusting to a future opportunity to 
more fully illustrate his views upon those subjects, of a 
purely physical nature, herein so hastily touched upon. 
Now that the book is in print, he realizes that his effort at 
great brevity must subject him, upon some points, to mis- 
interpretation, though he hopes, it may be to no serious 
extent. 

Treating so exclusively and unmistakably of the human 
subject, the author has not deemed it necessary in speak- 
ing, as he so often has occasion to do, of the " animal," the 
" animal life," etc., to restrict his references thereto, by 
specific designation ; and much less to discriminate between 
vertebrate and invertebrate construction — discriminations 



212 PHYSICS OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 

which would be necessary to scientific accuracy, were the 
subject of life in general under discussion. 

Upon one topic, however, he must ask a parting word. 
In treating of the source of energy, upon page 74, the author 
makes, what will be considered by some, perhaps, a fan- 
ciful speculation, which intimates that the solar bodies 
derive their energy from a central source, and therefore 
have no inherent light and heat. This central source 
is designated as "the pivot of the universe." The con- 
struction of the paragraph seems liable to convey the im- 
pression, that the author entertains a belief in the trans- 
mission of energy from this central source to the solar 
bodies, in the forms of light and heat, as we receive the 
latter from our sun. Nothing could be further from his 
intention than this. If there be any basis for such a sup- 
position as the author makes, it does not follow, of neces- 
sity, that the energy is imparted in those forms to the solar 
bodies. The great centre of cosmic energy, to borrow a 
conception from Kant and Lambert, may have no appear- 
ance of luminosity, and yet impart energy to its satellites 
in a form, which afterward assumes the energic modes of 
light and heat. 

The idea is advanced as a mere suggestion, with no 
desire to make an argument upon a question, which, as 
involving an expert knowledge of the sidereal or stellar 
universe, does not belong to the author's province. 



